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Participating Frequently
October 14, 2022
Question

Radically different color between screen and print

  • October 14, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1546 views

Hello,

I am a graphic designer and I work a lot with Illustrator.

I often have to go through printers to print different projects/advertisements.

When I create an ad that is to be printed I pay attention to several things including:

- Be in CMYK

- Use the correct color profile (.ICC) that the printer has given me.
- Have my monitor calibrated
- and more

 

The result of the printing is never equivalent to what I have on my screen (the colors are always very different.)

I've been looking for a while but I can't find a solution.

Maybe the problem is when exporting to a pdf file? or before in the creation process?

 

In short I can't find it and I'm stuck.

That's why I'm coming to ask you the question !

 

Hopefully someone can help me,

Thanks in advance 🙂

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Legend
October 18, 2022

The people who wrote colour guides generally do not understand anything about colour. They take a colour from screen, convert it to CMYK by the first random way they find, and set it as a standard. You're going to need to learn how to ignore the CMYK values completely. With luck there are RGB values that you can treat as sRGB , and convert to the CMYK given to you by your printer. 

Why all this? Because CMYK isn't any kind of standard colour. It's a recipe. This much cyan ink, that much magenta, so much yellow, and that much black. Now, there are different brands of ink, which are different colours. The way the printing press runs affects the colour. And especially the type of paper used. Newsprint colours are a very long way from glossy paper colours, even with the same brand of ink. In fact if you use the wrong recipe, you will get the newsprint paper too wet and it can literally fall apart. So using the right newsprint colours is not optional. Using your so called company standard could get you in very big trouble. 

Participating Frequently
October 19, 2022

Thank you for your answer!
I can see that I need to communicate a lot more with my printer if I want to achieve results that match my expectations!
Thanks for all the details 😄

Community Expert
October 18, 2022
Participating Frequently
October 18, 2022

Thanks a lot for your answer! @Mariam Hovhannesyan 😄

Yes I already do all these steps.

 

What I find strange is that in addition to all these steps, the printer told me to use a specific color profile (ISO Newspaper 26V4)

Although I know how to apply a color profile, I don't know exactly how to use it correctly 😕😕

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 19, 2022

Encore une fois, merci beaucoup pour tes réponses !

 

Effectivement, après vérification sur Acrobat Pro je vois que le bleu n'a plus la même composition CMYK.

Donc est-il mieux lors ce que j'exporte mon fichier en pdf de n'inclure aucun profil colorimétrique ?

(Bien sur il faut demander à son imprimeur si c'est possible mais je parle dans les cas ou l'imprimeur n'est pas joignable de façon conventionel)


You need to use the profile they tell you to use in a way that the colors you set up do not get changed by accident.

Laura Coyle.
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 17, 2022

Are you using color books? Like Pantone or Trumatch? For any solid areas of color in your work, it's important to choose color from a physical sample, rather than relying on what you see on screen.

 

I use Pantone books (primarily the Color Bridge guide) and choose colors from the right-hand column, which are CMYK, rather than solid/spot colors (unless the job requires that). I have loaded into Illustrator the library of swatches from Pantone that corresponds to the color book I'm using. I then choose the numbered swatches directly from that library to apply to the art. Even then, I have to allow for some shifting of colors, but it's pretty accurate when I see the final printed piece. You'll notice when you use Pantone colors, they don't always look the same on screen as they do in the book, and that's why we use them. Screens can vary a lot. Also, talk to your printer, they may have some suggestions on using RGB and converting to CMYK.

Participating Frequently
October 18, 2022

@Laura Coyle.  A huge thank you for your response!

Yes I have Pantone references that I rely on for my various colors.

 

What I'm having trouble with and struggling to understand is how to prepare an Illustrator file for printing.

For example:

- If I have elements in illustrator that have different opacity, do I have to pixelize them or something before I give them to print?

- What type of PDF file is best for printing?

- How to use color profiles correctly?

- Is it better to use another software for printing (Photoshop, Indesign, ...)

 

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