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Checking color with device
- Thread starter Craig Keller
- Start date
balstestrat
Problem Solver
Get a spectro and you will be able to very easily match colors in Onyx for example. It's way better because it takes into account your print profile and gives you very good results.
However you didn't really specify what you want to do with it.
However you didn't really specify what you want to do with it.
Craig Keller
New Member
would like
to match colors on printed, or garments main issue is High school colors. They want there colors but of course dont have any specs for the colors. Then they end up with 50 different colors of gold... lol The one I listed will not give cmyk values. rgb and hex looks like. What model are you suggesting?
You dont want CMYK colors - Every printer prints CMYK Differently. You need to profile your machine so its accurate, then use Pantones or LAB colors - But even if you profile your machine, then put in CMYK colors... it's going to bypass your profile and just use the CMYK Color.
Color muse is best. It's made for paint, but it gives lab colors - With our machine it hits the color dead on 90ish% of the time from a scan with color muse... which I'd consider pretty good, nothing will be perfect though...so you'd still need to print a sample, or a swatch of samples and have them sign off on a color if they want it to be exact. It should always get you to within a few shades at worst though
Color muse is best. It's made for paint, but it gives lab colors - With our machine it hits the color dead on 90ish% of the time from a scan with color muse... which I'd consider pretty good, nothing will be perfect though...so you'd still need to print a sample, or a swatch of samples and have them sign off on a color if they want it to be exact. It should always get you to within a few shades at worst though
Craig Keller
New Member
so does ever printer print pantone the same?
Have you profiled your printer, or are you just running it default?
With a profiled printer, it'll hit most pantones pretty good - Not every pantone/color can be hit by a CMYK printer... So even with a perfectly profiled printer, there will be ones that will be off and you'll need to tweak them to be as close as possible. For instance... our Latex printer will hit every pantone we've thrown at it... but blue dark blue pantones it struggles with and we have to adjust them. Our Solvent printer hits everything ok, but there are some yellows it struggles with. Every printer is different. \
But you need to make a profile, otherwise its just guesswork. To make a Profile you need a device like an I1 spectro, you can buy a used one for a few hundred on Ebay, Then your printer will hit "Most" Pantones pretty accurately.
Without profiling your machine...you're only doing half of the equation. You can scan a color with a device and get the exact color mix it needs - but your printer wont know how to print / mix those colors. As heads age... it spits out less ink, or lays down ink in different spots... So profiling your machine will tell it how much ink each heads spitting out and what it needs to do to reach those colors.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2848564759...82EyFd1ZZREf9dqyQzAwUh7EM=|tkp:Bk9SR_6c5pb3YA - So get something like this - I'd stay away from used because theyre only good so many hours/years of use, then they need to be recalibrated. Profile your machine, then get a portable scanner and you should be ok color wise.
With a profiled printer, it'll hit most pantones pretty good - Not every pantone/color can be hit by a CMYK printer... So even with a perfectly profiled printer, there will be ones that will be off and you'll need to tweak them to be as close as possible. For instance... our Latex printer will hit every pantone we've thrown at it... but blue dark blue pantones it struggles with and we have to adjust them. Our Solvent printer hits everything ok, but there are some yellows it struggles with. Every printer is different. \
But you need to make a profile, otherwise its just guesswork. To make a Profile you need a device like an I1 spectro, you can buy a used one for a few hundred on Ebay, Then your printer will hit "Most" Pantones pretty accurately.
Without profiling your machine...you're only doing half of the equation. You can scan a color with a device and get the exact color mix it needs - but your printer wont know how to print / mix those colors. As heads age... it spits out less ink, or lays down ink in different spots... So profiling your machine will tell it how much ink each heads spitting out and what it needs to do to reach those colors.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2848564759...82EyFd1ZZREf9dqyQzAwUh7EM=|tkp:Bk9SR_6c5pb3YA - So get something like this - I'd stay away from used because theyre only good so many hours/years of use, then they need to be recalibrated. Profile your machine, then get a portable scanner and you should be ok color wise.
I was told by Cadlink to get the Nix tool to match colors. I bought the Nix Pro and it gives all kinds of paint and vinyl colors and LAB colors but I cannot get it to work with my JV150 and from what your saying I would need to profile my profile my printer which I have never done nor know how to do. So now I have something else to figure out. Thanks for proper direction.