Matching ink to paint

[Big Blue]

I am constantly being asked to match "this" paint color. I get paint on all sorts of materials and have a hard time matching it on my Vutek UV printer (fiery xf rip). It takes me hours to get close, and then it only matches depending where you are standing, it will look great on the printer table, then when moved to a different area they look totally different, so I know when the customer gets the sample and compares it with the paint it may not even be close depending on the lighting they are viewing it from. The ink and the paint have different sheens but the customer is not worried about the sheen, but more the color is the concern. How do you match ink to paint. what kind of lighting do you use. any advise or thouhts would be appreciated. I am self taught and do a decent job, but it just takes a hell of a lot of time, is that just the nature of the beast or is there an easier way. Do you use RGB, CMYK, LAB, HSV? I have an i1000 but it only gets me in the range, sometimes not even that close.

 

[signage]

Best to print off a color chart and let the customer pick from it. JM.02

 

[signswi]

Xrite 528 spectrodensitometer and a balanced color viewing box or booth to view the samples in (here's a link to building a simple color viewing booth).

All you can do is match it in balanced light and show the customer that. Lighting conditions in the wild aren't really your issue unless you know EXACTLY where it's going and then you can balance for it.

 

[SebastienL]

Best to print off a color chart and let the customer pick from it. JM.02

+1

 

[JWesthead]

I dont have an answer for you but some things to keep in mind or try. Our PressVu 200 has greatly less color gamut than any of our other prints so it some cases it may mean that you just cannot achieve the paint color. I would suggest using your spectro to get a lab value of what you are trying to achieve and go from there. For a quick "get close" +1 for the color chart. Unfortunately for the lighing as Jesse mentioned it only is correct if you know where its going.