Major Color Problems

[Bigdawg]

A few months ago we lost all of our custom profiles. All I can say is I didn't do it...

But... here is my problem. I printed a file out on a VP 540 that was a CMYK eps from last year - it had different color on two different days. Major color difference - beyond atmospheric conditions. FYI - The closest match we can get to our old custom 3M profile is to use the Generic Banner 2 profile with some tweaks.

I needed to add 3" to the height of the background, so I did. Resaved the Illustrator CS5 file (just hit save) and reripped it to print. The color was NOT the same as the previous file. Think light neonish green versus a deeper lime green. Same profile, same everything as far as we could tell. I finally saved it as an RGB PDF and got close to the previous color (this was one panel of an already printed wrap). The frustrating part is the color it printed the second day was the color we expected and wanted when the original wrap printed. But it printed a darker green and we had to go with it.

Our normal workflow is RBG pdf - but since the beginning we have only been able to hit the green we wanted on this job with a CMYK eps file.

I am stumped. I don't understand WHY this is happening. I am only working 2 days a week, so my trouble-shooting time is limited. Any thoughts?

 

[P Wagner]

A few months ago we lost all of our custom profiles. All I can say is I didn't do it...

But... here is my problem. I printed a file out on a VP 540 that was a CMYK eps from last year - it had different color on two different days. Major color difference - beyond atmospheric conditions. FYI - The closest match we can get to our old custom 3M profile is to use the Generic Banner 2 profile with some tweaks.

I needed to add 3" to the height of the background, so I did. Resaved the Illustrator CS5 file (just hit save) and reripped it to print. The color was NOT the same as the previous file. Think light neonish green versus a deeper lime green. Same profile, same everything as far as we could tell. I finally saved it as an RGB PDF and got close to the previous color (this was one panel of an already printed wrap). The frustrating part is the color it printed the second day was the color we expected and wanted when the original wrap printed. But it printed a darker green and we had to go with it.

Our normal workflow is RBG pdf - but since the beginning we have only been able to hit the green we wanted on this job with a CMYK eps file.

I am stumped. I don't understand WHY this is happening. I am only working 2 days a week, so my trouble-shooting time is limited. Any thoughts?

Repeatability over time (from a color perspective) can only be achieved when a great number of variables are controlled. These include:

1. Printer / Nozzle performance
2. Environmental consistency (temp and humidity)
3. Software Settings (resolution, rendering intent, pass counts etc)
4. Media Profile consistency
5. File consistency (same print file)
6. Color Engine consistency (the RIPs internal color engine)

Obviously, in this case, at least one of these has changed, perhaps more than one. It is critically important to back up your color profile information especially when building custom media profiles (RML file in the case of Versaworks, other RIPs have a similar mechanism).

 

[Bigdawg]

I could go with that... except that one day it printed one color WITH THE SAME PROFILE... the very next day it printed differently. As far as we can see all settings are exactly the same in Illustrator AND in VersaWorks. All I did was hit save when I corrected the file. No "Save As" or anything.

And yes... profiles should have been backed up... but when the boss deletes EVERYTHING "just to make sure" I can't do anything about it.

 

[Rooster]

Were your input profiles the same?

If you took an RGB file with no embedded profile and opened it up with two different color settings (say one time your settings were AdobeRGB, and the next time you open the file the color settings had been changed to sRGB) the files will be different color.

 

[signswi]

Yep, check your color settings. Illustrator may have auto assigned or converted the file to your working space.