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Inspiring
August 27, 2025
Question

How To guide on Color Profile?

  • August 27, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 196 views

Hi... I'm new to this processs.. so I may be using improper terms... so looking for guidance to meet my goals.

I'm using Illustrator to design artwork for a keychain tag that I will dye sublimate.

My first print, the colors are 'off'.. e.g., the blue I used is very muted, and the green I used is nearly grey.. the yellow is fine, but the orange/red is more red than orange.

I imagine I need to tweak my colors based on the actual output.. but no idea how to go about that process... is there some calibration process by which I converge on the right colors based on the final ouput on my media?

Any good vids or tutorials on this process?

One other note, in order to get the images into the software I'm using for cutting, I'm exporting the illustrator to a PNG for printing from another software (Cricut Design Space)... what additional caveats do I need to be aware of?

Thanks!

1 reply

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 27, 2025

What document color mode are you using? RGB or CMYK?

 

Inspiring
August 31, 2025

What should I be using?  CYMK i guess since it is print?  I'll have to check next time in at my workstation. 

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 2, 2025

Thanks, @Ton Frederiks -- 

I'm printing..  and it is, in fact, on my dye sublimation printer (Epson F170).

I did check the Illustrator document, and it is presently CYMK.

Are you suggesting I perhaps can 'just' change the document from CMYK to RGB and may have better result?

 


No, when colors are defined as CMYK, most of them don't change/improve when converting to RGB.

CMYK colors are much more limited than RGB and once defined in CMYK, converting to RGB will just result in trying to represent the muted colors as RGB.

I see your printer does only have CMYK colors. That does not mean that they are the same CMYK colors as used in offset printing. Maybe you can try some color tests from an RGB document with brighter colors. 

And check the options in your printer dialog for color management like Let Illustrator determine colors or the printer.