Color Management For Idiots

[gabagoo]

I print out the colour charts on our machine using different profiles, then when I need a pantone colour I go searching for the closest match. I have found that there a re a ton of colours you will never get close to with a 4 col printer, blues being one of them.

http://www.printingdigital.net/

these guys have a few charts you can download off there site and print with your jv3.
I too have the jv3 130 spII - Slowly but surely I am getting there with it, but every so often a job comes in that just drives me around the bend trying to get a decent colour match.

 

[DARLAK]

I convert any files that aren't already CMYK into CMYK through photoshop, I print from Flexi with color correction turned off. People have told me you can't do that, we I do and it works. I just did $30,000 worth of signs just like that for an NFL training camp with mostly all national sponsors and the colors printed just fine. There are a few colors that don't print perfect, but I have a PMS to CMYK pantone converter swatch book to get them closer. These printers are CMYK, they will never truly print RGB.

 

[bob]

I convert any files that aren't already CMYK into CMYK through photoshop, I print from Flexi with color correction turned off. People have told me you can't do that, we I do and it works. I just did $30,000 worth of signs just like that for an NFL training camp with mostly all national sponsors and the colors printed just fine. There are a few colors that don't print perfect, but I have a PMS to CMYK pantone converter swatch book to get them closer. These printers are CMYK, they will never truly print RGB.

This can work for non-bitmap data. Don't try it with a bitmap or it will look like an exercise in mud wrestling. While it can work sometimes, it's rather a naive approach.

Far better to develop an actual understanding of The Way Things Are and exploit that understanding. While you may find converting everything to CMYK expedient, it's generally better to work in RBG and let there be but one and only one mapping into CMYK. By the RIP engine when the image is printed.

Since your monitor is RGB, keeping everything in CMYK requires that it be mapped into RGB space just to see it. If you visually specify some color or another it necessarily happens in RGB. Which, of course, requires it to mapped into CMYK space just to store it. Mapping back and forth usually involves an exciting side trip through LAB space. And from there it can only get uglier.

Working in RBG, at least working gracefully, requires you to either have all of your equipment properly profiled or for you to understand just what's going on and be able to properly compensate and deal with what you see not necessarily being what you get. For myself, I've been doing this for at least long enough to pretty much know what yields what but it took a while to learn, Others find solace in profiling everything that isn't nailed down. Either way, for the most part, we all work in RGB.

In this endeavor using Flexi's Soft Proof feature can be your friend. Assuming that Flexi's Color Setting are at least close to properly set for your monitor.

 

[DARLAK]

Don't try it with a bitmap or it will look like an exercise in mud wrestling

WRONG - you think i did $30,000 worth of work for an NFL training camp and there were no bitmaps? 50% of the prints were bitmaps.

it's generally better to work in RBG

WRONG- how do you figure, your end result is CMYK, why start out in a different language? is it better to write a book in chinese and then convert it to english just before you send it off for 100,000 copies???

Since your monitor is RGB

WRONG - digital montitors give a perfect view of CMYK without the 'soft view', sure the old analog connection gives you RGB, but i'm HD digital

Either way, for the most part, we all work in RGB

WRONG - CMYK all day - all the way!!

not only do you get the benefit of no trying to color match and profile yourself to death, printing pure CMYK files allows you to step down in you print mode ie from 720 to 540 and even 360 and get much faster and better results.

bob, i expected answers like yours

it's rather a naive approach

BUT the proof is in the pudding, I have been NAIVELY printing this way for two years with hardly any obsticles, sure there are a few colors that don't quite translate as pure as they could , but this is CMYK printing were talking about that happens all the time!

don't knock it until you've tried it, I have a pretty successful business with three printers runnning. I do alot of work for national companies and there logo's must be the right color and I never get any complaints.

The headaches of color matching, printing giant color charts off my printer and matching those to what I want the color to be are gone.

think CMYK, RGB is you emeny!

 

[javila]

Things that will change your colors when printing

1) Different working spaces (Adobe1998, US Swop Coated 1, sRGB, etc.)
2) Rendering Intent (Perceptual, Absolute, etc)
3) Materials (Cast, Cal, Paper, Banner, etc.)
4) Quality Settings (360x720, 720x720, 4 pass, 8 pass, etc.)
5) Profiles (Ink limites, ICC, Linearization, etc.)
6) Heater Temp
7) Ambient Temp
8) Ink set
9) Looking at your printer the wrong way
10) Farting in front of your printer

You get the idea, yes?

As for using CMYK to design files, unless you've created a specific CMYK color space to work with you're going to be missing some colors that your printer can print that aren't inside of a canned CMYK color space. It's nothing to do with display or inkset or anything like that.

A rip typically takes any type of file CMYK/RGB/sRGB and coverts it into a larger RGB color space before coverting it to ink amount for the actual ink.

Work inside RGB but within the space of your printer. You'll get a higher color gamut.