Color Confused??

[ABHDesigns]

Had a designer come talk to me about color...he was saying that everyone is switching to rgb. That it prints better? I've been out of the large format printing game for a couple of years....So I'm a little behind on the times. Like when everyone switched to lpi? lol....and dpi is now the evil empire or somthing...Anyways, RGB is better?Although my mutoh prints in cmyk...and flexi is set to perform a color correction using my profile...?? I'm making myself confused. Does anyone know how this all works out. I thought it was use pantone in cmyk and get the best results. Then your color profile will work with your media to make sure those results come across? Are people making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Opions, suggestions??

 

[ucmj22]

Digitally printed inks have a wider color gammut than a CMYK offset press. if you design in CMYK, you dont take advantage of that. If you design in RGB, you will not get the full RGB color spectrum, But it will be more than CMYK. End result = brighter colors, especially blues, oranges & purples

 

[signswi]

RGB is generally better -- ideally you'd profile your machine and use that color space as your preview output profile so that your out of gamut warnings are accurate and you're getting the maximum out of your machine. Workflow questions are always problematic, people like working in different ways.

 

[10sacer]

Color

I used to teach color profiling and color management way back in my days with DuPont Color Proofing. There is a really long answer to your question and a 5000 foot view answer.

Simply put - RGB is a much wider color space than CMYK, so if you design in RGB you will have a larger pallette of colors to choose from and be able to achieve - on a computer screen at least. The very minute you have to convert to CMYK (which at some point when printing digital - you will have to) you then clip the potential color gamut pretty good in certain areas and that clipping is generally based on the achievable gamut of whoever's ink you are using. Generally you take a great hit in Oranges, Reds, and Blues. There are others, but those are the big ones.

This is why when you choose Pantone 021 orange on screen you get a really bright orange - but when you print you get a brownish pumpkin orange. Lots of reasons go into this and why this happens.

Easy way to predict these shifts is to spen $90 on the Pantone Solid to Process book and you can see a swatch printed spot color right next to its CMYK equivalent and can see what happens when it gets converted to print process.

Most new RIP systems will do a pretty decent job of converting from RGB to CMYK for you. This allows you to carry the maximum gamut as far as you can go prior to ink on media. Or you can calibrate your monitor and set up some profiles and do the conversion yourself in Photoshop. Either way has plusses and minuses and its your decision which is right for you - just remember to not double color manage your images or you will get all kinds of funkiness.

If you want to get really squirrelly - design in LAB color. Different discussion...

 

[ucmj22]

Easy way to predict these shifts is to spen $90 on the Pantone Solid to Process book and you can see a swatch printed spot color right next to its CMYK equivalent and can see what happens when it gets converted to print process.

Just as a note, when referencing the pantone color bridge swatch book, it does not represent the closest match when printing on a digital press from a file designed in RGB.

 

[SightLine]

I've been printing wide format inkjet for about 7 years myself and have pretty much done all design in RGB the entire time. Yes - I do make our own custom profiles for our printer as well. CMYK files are dull oversized and severely limit your wide format inkjets abilites.

 

[Rooster]

RGB is the way to go, but your clients will need to be a little color savvy themselves.

Expect to be sending soft-proofs and converting their files to your output profiles so they can see how much the image will change when converted to your printers gamut. There is still a sizable shift when going from RGB to your custom profiles, but it's not as bad as going to a SWOP profile.

Some of the newer 12 color machines can get pretty close to an RGB gamut, but those inks won't last more than a couple of weeks outdoors. If that's what your client is expecting, then they've been mis-informed about what a solvent, UV or latex printer is capable of color wise.

 

[grafixemporium]

What always confused me was that ink types throw a monkey wrench into everything. Keep in mind that magenta ink by one manufacturer is not the same exact shade of magenta ink made by another manufacturer. A file may print beautifully on your Roland and look like butt on a Vutek.

Yes, RGB has a much wider gamut than CMYK on a computer screen. So your RGB designs are going to look much better, brighter and more vivid on a computer screen. Ultimately, the RIP is going to convert your RGB files to CMYK so it can print with a CMYK ink set. At that point, your limitations are that of the ink set itself.

Things really get hairy when you outsource printing. We have run into this countless times. We have customers that we have developed logos and designs for that were printed for various projects in house on our Roland. Then it comes time to print some business cards or brochures and we have to convert everything to CMYK or the printers won't take it. Many times I feel like it's a guessing game.