What color settings / profile do i pick for (package) printing?

[Rubeno_]

A question that has been bugging me for a long time now.

In my specific case:

I was asked to redesign / tidy-up 7 simulair looking packages for whiteboard accessories. The issue with the current packaging is that some of them have a weird green-ish layer. I'm not sure / aware what went wrong when the current packaging was printed. With the redesign we want to avoid some of them looking different, we want them looking all the same, color wise.

The redesigned packaging is being printed at the same printer where the initial packaging was printed, which is China.

Is anyone able to tell me what color settings / profiles are best for these kind of files? And which settings to export the PDF in? I usually choose PDF/X-1a:2001

These are the current color settings / profile the previous design used

[Eugene Tyson · Accepted solution]

The only one that can you tell you that is the printers. 

I've seen packaging printed on the same machine at different times of the day come off with shifts in colour. 

Sometimes printer may split the run between two machines - and this can cause colour shifts. 

There's lots of things that can happen - but you really need to bring these concerns up with your print provider. 

[Rubeno_]

Hi Eugene Tyson!

Thanks your for response.

Isn't there a general / default setting which i can use? I'm pretty the one color setting / profile is better than the other?
In color settings the working space default for me is (as specified in the attached image in my 1st post): 
- RGB: sRGB IEC61966-2.1

- CMYK: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2

Would this be something i could use?

[Eugene Tyson]

If it's being printed in China why would you ue U.S. Web coated (web is roll fed (like newspapers)) SWOP v2?

You really need to get the colour profiles from the printers.

[Rubeno_]

Thanks again for your response.

I expected as much, but wanted to be sure as this isn't my area of expertise. Although i would really like to have more knowledge of this.

Thank you for clearing that up. I will make sure to try and get a hold of the printer in China to make sure everything on my end will be as expected.

[Test Screen Name]

No, really. There isn't an industry default. Talk to the printer. Packaging is a critical part of a company's future. It is often among the most complex print jobs seen, with use of spots and varnishes even before getting into cutting and folding. 

And if the printer won't or can't answer your questions, pass upwards your lack of confidence in the printer, so you aren't the person held accountable for poor product performance. 

[Rubeno_]

Thanks for clarfying that. Somewhere i was hoping there was a default or a you-can't-go-wrong-with option. I expected nothing less of an answer, to be honest.

Before posting here I did some research myself but that didn't clarify things for me.

[rob day]

One thing to note about your attached captures—the Assign Profiles capture is showing the active document has no color profiles assigned. A document with no color profiles falls back to the current Color Settings’ Working Spaces for the soft proof display of native RGB and CMYK process colors. So with no profile assignments, the color display is effectively random, and would change depending on whatever the current Color Settings InDesign happens to have loaded.

You definately always want a document RGB profile assignment, because it will be impossible to accurately convert RGB colors into to the final CMYK print space at Export or Print without a source RGB profile.

If the packaging color output will be all Spot color (not a conversion to process colors), and you are using the Pantone Solid Color or Toyo Solid Color book libraries, the Color Settings and profile assignments do not matter. The Solid Color libraries define colors as device independent Lab, which has no profile. The soft proof accuracy of a Lab color representing a solid ink, depends only on your system’s monitor profile accuracy.

For either process or spot color you have to have an accurate monitor profile, which is generated when a monitor is calibrated.