Need Help Color management with Flexi HP Basic & HP 310 questions.

[kcorcoran]

Newbie color management questions.
Pretty happy with how my 310 repairs have turned out and I'm starting to print.



In order to gang everything up with overlaps I've brought all my art into illustrator, CMYK color mode.
In that file I have some vector art created in illustrator and some imported CMYK) tif raster files from Photoshop .
Both the vector and raster art are using the same PMS colors but when I print there is a slight difference in color between the two.
(Top is raster, bottom is vector)



My illustrator color profile settings look like this (default).

I'm using Flexi HP Basic with the default color management settings and correct profile for my media.
I just noticed this setting in advanced color management tab on Rendering intent where Bitmap is set to Perceptual and Vector is set to Relative Colormetric. Perhaps this is causing the difference?

- Does anyone have any advice on how I should approach doing this to ensure better consistency?

- Do raster files need different RIP settings (assume so since they seem to be set differently in my screenshot)?

- Should I avoid mixing raster and vector images in the same file and convert everything to raster for print as part of the file prep?

- Where can I learn more about color management and workflow specific to this printer and Flexi?


Meanwhile, I really need to get my take up reel installed.

 

[dypinc]

Make sure your rendering intent is the same to start with. Is the Vector spot or just a CMYK build?

 

[kcorcoran]

vector was spot from the pantone .ase pallet imported into illustrator.
photoshop on the other hand was converted lab color since i originally couldnt get the ase to show up in photoshop but i not have it working. have to run a new test with the new colors after changing render intent settings and updating the raster using the spots from the library.

 

[dypinc]

Color will never match like that. Does Flexi have the ability to change output values? If so you can change one the CMYK builds to match the other one.

 

[Joe House]

You've got several things going on. You've got Flexi using spot mapping which will take your pantone spot colors and use the maps colors. This should get you the best match, but it only works with vector graphics.
Your rendering intents for vectors and bit maps are not the same.
If you want them to match, turn off color mapping, set both rendering intents to the same - relative colorimetric is more accurate, perceptual generally makes pictures look better.
Also as a personal preference, I design in RGB to get a larger gamut in the design. The Web coated SWOP profile gamut is much smaller than most sign industry printers are capable of, so you're losing a lot of potential colors.

 

[kcorcoran]

You've got several things going on. You've got Flexi using spot mapping which will take your pantone spot colors and use the maps colors. This should get you the best match, but it only works with vector graphics.
Your rendering intents for vectors and bit maps are not the same.
If you want them to match, turn off color mapping, set both rendering intents to the same - relative colorimetric is more accurate, perceptual generally makes pictures look better.
Also as a personal preference, I design in RGB to get a larger gamut in the design. The Web coated SWOP profile gamut is much smaller than most sign industry printers are capable of, so you're losing a lot of potential colors.

Interesting designing in RGB.
For most of this classic arcade stuff (until you get into the 90s) it's generally limited color screen printed that I try to match by sampling with my Nix Mini to get a close Pantone reading and then break out the swatch book to confirm or better match.
That said, I just did a fully vector file before seeing your post. Nix sampled it right, pantone swatch was accurate. Saved as CMYK from Illustrator.
Left color mapping checked and changed render intent so they all matched (just to save it as default).

Greens came out a bit more drab than the originally matched color. I'm assuming either it's a printer limitation, improper settings.. or now like you're saying, maybe send it to the printer as RGB and let Flexi map the PMS colors in the document?