-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Trying to get the right color!
- Thread starter NikkiD
- Start date
Ragin Cajun
New Member
Next time...
I would print out a color chart from your printer.
Then select a color from your chart.
Let them match your color.
4R Graphics
New Member
if you dont have a spectrometer to read it then you are going to have to print alot of swatches and even then you may not get the exact color but perhaps close.
Also and i hate to tell you this but the green you are trying to match may be out side the spectrum for your printer which means you will never be able to match it exactlly.
Also and i hate to tell you this but the green you are trying to match may be out side the spectrum for your printer which means you will never be able to match it exactlly.
NikkiD
Owner/ Designer
I have Versa Works. I just ordered the Pantone Capsure tonight thinking it might help. Don't know if that was a smart route or not. Also someone suggested the colormunki too. However not sure if it will work on the Versa Camm VS 540 and Versa Works. On color theory ugh not great. The green is sort of a sea foam and cross over of kelly green. If that explains it. I am worried that its out of my spectrum! My customer is really pushing hard to get a straight on match!
ProWraps
New Member
sounds like you are in over your head.
years of doing this and colors still yet rarely kick my butt. my experience (see hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted time and materials) kick in and we pull it off.
welcome to the new world you have chosen. i hope you got lots of money to waste.
years of doing this and colors still yet rarely kick my butt. my experience (see hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted time and materials) kick in and we pull it off.
welcome to the new world you have chosen. i hope you got lots of money to waste.
SightLine
║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
The colormunki will not help, unless you just want to calibrate your monitor. You need an i1 to create your own color profiles for wide format printing. Even then, as mentioned if the color is outside the gamut your ink set is capable of its not going to happen regardless. Quick and dirty option, make a nice long row of 2"squares. Start picking close colors at random, print them on the exact vinyl you will be using, wait an hour or so, then laminate with the exact vinyl. Go inside AND outside in the sun with the test row and the sample to match to and pick the closest matches. Come back inside, and play with those samples more adjusting further to get it closer, ranging from changing/converting to rgb, cmyk, lab, trying different rendering intents, print resolutions, etc. Print another test, rinse and repeat as many times as it takes. Make sure to documents changes, copy/paste rows so you can track/go back if needed. Time consuming and tedious, have fun, good luck.
Not fun but I bet most all of us has done this at least once before...
Not fun but I bet most all of us has done this at least once before...
4R Graphics
New Member
NikkiD yes you do have a lot of work ahead of you good luck to you.
Follow what sightline said and be prepaired for it to take most of the day and perhaps the next as well.
We all or most of us have made this mistake and paid for it (but we learned alot in the process) so welcome to the club.
Do yourself a huge favor and dont promise color matching until you buy a spectrometer (i1) and learn color theory and gamuts it will save you a lot of headaches and money.
When you do purchase the equipment and learn the ropes still tell your customers that we will get it close NEVER tell them you can reproduce it perfectlly. There are 2 main reasons you never tell them you can match it perfectlly first is you may not be able to and second if you do match it perfectlly you look like a hero and exceed your customers expectations (that you controlled by telling them you will try to get it close.)
Follow what sightline said and be prepaired for it to take most of the day and perhaps the next as well.
We all or most of us have made this mistake and paid for it (but we learned alot in the process) so welcome to the club.
Do yourself a huge favor and dont promise color matching until you buy a spectrometer (i1) and learn color theory and gamuts it will save you a lot of headaches and money.
When you do purchase the equipment and learn the ropes still tell your customers that we will get it close NEVER tell them you can reproduce it perfectlly. There are 2 main reasons you never tell them you can match it perfectlly first is you may not be able to and second if you do match it perfectlly you look like a hero and exceed your customers expectations (that you controlled by telling them you will try to get it close.)
rjssigns
Active Member
Harsh reality is you will NEVER match a large percentage of Pantone colors with a CMYK inkjet printer. Certain greens are a huge problem also even with your profiling locked down.
Do yourself a favor and get a Pantone bridge chart. At a glance you will be able to see what is possible with CMYK.
Do yourself a favor and get a Pantone bridge chart. At a glance you will be able to see what is possible with CMYK.
Artworks
Artworks
Swatches and pantone charts printing from your machine are the way to start. Pick one and make slight changes from that. Don't waste your time with the calibration software its really a waste of time and cash. Keep in mind that there are so many variances that will change our colors in this business it will make your head spin...Try different color profiles, CMYK and RGB. Also, dont forget, once you laminate it, the colors will change again for your final product. Especially, blues and greens since alot of the laminates have yellowish tint
4R Graphics
New Member
We have custom profiles we built and can hit the better part (or really really close) of the colors in the Bridge swatch book but there are some colors that are just off and it is such a pain to get them close enough that we try our best to stay away from those colors.
If you dont have a high demand from your clients of having to print specific colors then I agree dont bother with the equipment to build profiles.
Good luck and use the BRIDGE+ swatch books they give you better info especially for CMYK and inkjet printing.
If you dont have a high demand from your clients of having to print specific colors then I agree dont bother with the equipment to build profiles.
Good luck and use the BRIDGE+ swatch books they give you better info especially for CMYK and inkjet printing.
beermonster
New Member
well all of the above work - mostly painful i'll agree
deffo get a spectro for sure - and when you do look into katzper from nazdar - and read the instructions carefully unlike me i was doin it wrong to start with
or use the attached to help. open the file in text edit. change the Master C, M, Y and K values as you need. Now this is critical - 0 = 0 obviously. 1 = 100% ink ok! you want 35% tint of cyan then change the cyan value to 0.35
do NOT delete spaces or anything!
i've highlighted the areas in red (hopefully)
% ***** THE FOLLOWING FORMULA IS THE CENTER OF THE COLOR SPACE THAT WILL BE PRINTED *****
% ***** THIS EXAMPLE WILL PRINT C=0% M=0% Y=8% K=15%
/masterC 0.95 def % C in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
/masterM 0.70 def % M in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
/masterY 0.25 def % Y in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
/masterK 0.25 def % K in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
it's really important to not touch anything else. save as a new .ps file to your desktop. open that file in preview - preview will create a pdf. save that pdf somewhere then rip as normal and print. it generates a bunch of squares around your original colour
not brilliant but helps. your "colour" you entered in values is down the centre, and it puts the values of each swatch in - pick the nearest and try again.
but really - look into katzper from nazdar
deffo get a spectro for sure - and when you do look into katzper from nazdar - and read the instructions carefully unlike me i was doin it wrong to start with
or use the attached to help. open the file in text edit. change the Master C, M, Y and K values as you need. Now this is critical - 0 = 0 obviously. 1 = 100% ink ok! you want 35% tint of cyan then change the cyan value to 0.35
do NOT delete spaces or anything!
i've highlighted the areas in red (hopefully)
% ***** THE FOLLOWING FORMULA IS THE CENTER OF THE COLOR SPACE THAT WILL BE PRINTED *****
% ***** THIS EXAMPLE WILL PRINT C=0% M=0% Y=8% K=15%
/masterC 0.95 def % C in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
/masterM 0.70 def % M in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
/masterY 0.25 def % Y in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
/masterK 0.25 def % K in % for CMYK Master recipe *** MODIFY THIS ***
it's really important to not touch anything else. save as a new .ps file to your desktop. open that file in preview - preview will create a pdf. save that pdf somewhere then rip as normal and print. it generates a bunch of squares around your original colour
not brilliant but helps. your "colour" you entered in values is down the centre, and it puts the values of each swatch in - pick the nearest and try again.
but really - look into katzper from nazdar
beermonster
New Member
crap - attachment failed - i'll try again tomorrow - buggeration.
beermonster
New Member
crap - didnt accept a .ps file - dammit - or a zip - sod it