dull colors

[stice]

When tring to print flames from my vehicle graphics cd and setting the rendering intent to relitive colormetric, the graphic looks good on screen but dull when it prints. I am using the outdoor fal. 36 inch and running Flexi 8. The colors are not rich, everything looks dull. I really had not paid much attention to it but seen another print from the same type machine and it looked great, deep colors that looked great. I have tried different profiles but no luck. The material is 3651 oracal. Thanks for any help.

 

[bob]

Set your rendering intents to 'Perceptual' for bitmaps and to 'None' or 'Spot' for everything else.

See if that doesn't liven things up for you.

 

[jiarby]

Make sure your bitmaps are CMYK, not RGB

 

[stice]

When I print out something with no color correction it really looks bad (dull). Not trying to sound crazy but how do you ensure the pics are CMYK and not RGB.

 

[bob]

When I print out something with no color correction it really looks bad (dull). Not trying to sound crazy but how do you ensure the pics are CMYK and not RGB.

Bitmaps don't fare well with no color correction. Vector and other like objects do just fine. It depends on what you're printing.

Counter-intuitive as it might sound, you absolutely positively don't want to be doing anything in CMYK. You want everything in RGB and let the RIP do the translation just once at print time.

CMYK is a sure-fire path to dull and muddy colors. Certainly there are profile weenies that think otherwise but for ordinary people with less than an obsessive interest in farkeling around with profiles, RGB is the Way To Go.

 

[stice]

Hey Bob thanks for your help! I have another crazy question for you. When you design something you use standart RGB colors? Then let the rip software do the corrections for CMYK? Cause sometimes I have to play around with the colors to find the right Green or blue etc. Should I do this with RGB colors then send it top rip?

But I have to figure this bitmap thing out though. It really looks dull after printing. I have a guy wanting these flames for his car and right now I cant get them to print out with the dull look.

Hey thanks again for the help.

 

[jiarby]

I change my RGB bitmaps in Corel to CMYK and they look fine. When we forget and print them as RGB they get muddy & flat/grayish looking. I am using Onyx RIP.

In Corel, select the bitmap, then from the BITMAPS mens choose Mode-CMYK32bit.

 

[ChiknNutz]

At the very minimum, you should be profiling your monitor so you at least have a fighting chance of WYSIWYG....though being a 'profile weenie' I profile the whole works to ensure it.

 

[bob]

Hey Bob thanks for your help! I have another crazy question for you. When you design something you use standart RGB colors? Then let the rip software do the corrections for CMYK? Cause sometimes I have to play around with the colors to find the right Green or blue etc. Should I do this with RGB colors then send it top rip?

But I have to figure this bitmap thing out though. It really looks dull after printing. I have a guy wanting these flames for his car and right now I cant get them to print out with the dull look.

Hey thanks again for the help.

I have full Pantone charts printed printed on the various media I use. Both for printing directly out of Flexi and printing via PDF out of Corel. There's a bit of color shift going to PDF. When I need a specific color, I consult the proper printed chart and pay little heed to what appears on my monitor. What it looks like on the media is the truth, all else is inconsequential.

Bitmaps tend to come across nicely as RGB using the Perceptual rendering intent.

 

[Jackpine]

Well I have to agree with everything Bob has said. RGB is the way to design. I use CorelX3 and export all bitmaps as RGB.My Mutoh Jr prints them just fine. You will get a larger color gamut using RGB and better color. Print out color charts and you will at least have a reference for your colors.

 

[GK]

Definitely RGB but if you don't have your media & equip profiled, you might be in for a suprise about the difference from the monitor to the printer.