Color Mapping vs. Manual Color Adjusting to match spot colors

[CalamityJay]

Has anyone gone down the road of color mapping? In the production manager rip there is an option for color mapping. There are custom icc profiles which I use for everyday printing which seem to work well (for the most part)which I have created using production manager and an eye1.

However, recently I had a job where color was somewhat critical and we needed to match color to a customer supplied print. They supplied a paper print using their own icc profile and I would be printing on vinyl using my custom profiles.

Using the color mapping option, I scanned the customer supplied print and got the lab values of the spot colors and the colors which were obviously in need of color correction. This resulted in prints that looked brighter but werent close to the customer supplied color. Weird right? I thought they would magically match too!! WOw, was I naive.

Anyways, I wanted to see if i would be able to match the pantone color to the print and then use the cmyk/rgb equivalant to match color but I used the cmyk instead of rgb. From what I understand the RGB was what I was supposed to use.

I also found the Pantone print page and printed it through our copier to compare how well it handles specific pantone colors. Still need to compare print to book but it looks half decent just by looking at the first prints.

http://www.cal-print.com/InkColorChart.htm

I am using flexi 10, production manager10.5.1, xerox700 copier.

Any insight into mapping all pantone colors for any reason?? or is that just a crazy idea?

 

[4R Graphics]

Well I dont know what to tell you to help you out.

What I can tell you is that I built custom profiles in flexi for our JV33 and I can hit almost every pantone color (if designed in cmyk) I say almost every pantone color because 1. I have not checked every color but the 100 or so I have checked are well to my eye dead on with the book. 2. Some pantone colors can not be reproduced in cmyk you can verify this with the pantone+ books.

So if your image is CMYK and built with pantones if you can not print them you may need to look into building a new profile perhaps something in the system rip, printhead, humidity, etc has thrown your profile off.

Good luck and sorry I can not be of more help.

 

[Bly]

However, recently I had a job where color was somewhat critical and we needed to match color to a customer supplied print. They supplied a paper print using their own icc profile and I would be printing on vinyl using my custom profiles.

I bet you only try and do this once.

**** knows what they did to produce that "proof".

Calibrate your printer with custom profiles and tell the client your system is calibrated to print whatever is in their artwork.

 

[CalamityJay]

http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99781&highlight=spot+color+pantone

Probably the best thread for color management on this site by far! This link explains why to use RGB space when printing with a wide format printer. CMYK is mainly for offset printing and longer runs. Not when using a wider color gamut that the large format digital printer can achieve.

My thought is, "use the tools correctly and they will do the hard work for you." I just wish I had the concrete know-how of color management with the specific software I am using and to have a window that comes up when i follow the right steps!

I'm glad there are others out there that are going through the same issues!!