Home Forums Printing Discussions General Printing Topics Colour Calibrations

  • Colour Calibrations

    Posted by Sign Age on 5 March 2007 at 05:37

    Hi folks,

    have you had any issues with the accuracy of colours that is seen on-screen monitor vs the actual print out from printer?

    I do understand that PC are RGBs and Printers are CMYK and there are bound to be variations of colours. However it is quite frustrating especially when we need to show customer the color proof, when what you see is not what you get.

    Over at our side, we run 4 pcs and 2 mac for artwork processing and output at 1 Roland and 1 Novajet. We also have 1 HP laser printer for color proof.

    The colours are just not the same when we see on screen and compare to final print.

    For eg.

    1. The color we see on screen is what customer wants.
    2. We print on HP and the color is off
    3. We print on Roland / Novajet, sometimes the colour is not what customer wants.

    We have tried in vain to calibrate the colours on the monitor to be close to final output. So most of the time, we will just color proof by printing a small sample material for customer.

    Is there anyway that we can do to calibrate the machines to match inputs and output? What would you suggest to do?

    regards.

    Jeff

    George Kern replied 18 years, 8 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • George Kern

    Member
    5 March 2007 at 06:30

    Jeff,

    You are going to need to get in touch with someone who has a professional color calibration kit such as the X-rite pulse w/ MonacoPROFILER software and for the monitor an EyeOne monitor calibration device. It doesn’t have to be these exact tools and software combinations but you will need something along these lines to get the results you are trying to achieve. A trained tech will be able to calibrate all your input devices so they are profiled to match your output devices, that way when you pull up the file on one of your Macs its the same as your PC and vice versa so when you go to print, everything is still identical. Hope this helps. Contact GretagMacbeth or X-rite, they should be able to help you out with trained techs in your area.

  • Sign Age

    Member
    6 March 2007 at 04:13

    Thanks Pal.

    I have contacted our local rep, now waiting their quotation.

    Just wondering, does most people with Large Format Printer calibrate their devices?

    regards

  • George Kern

    Member
    6 March 2007 at 04:48

    Jeff,

    I don’t know if most people do, i would highly recommend that they did though. It is the only real way to get the same results time after time with what you see on your screen. Keep in mind, different media will behave differently, so it would be wise to profile all of your popular medias that you use to print on and for backlit materials you will most likely have to extend your ink limits or put it on a multiple pass type of mode because the ink will show up much lighter once a light source is behind the print if you do not do this. If this is something you plan to do often or have a large variety or materials, it may be a smart investment to purchase your own setup (most of them come with a 1-2 day training course to cover the basics) then when you find some free time, experiment on your own with it and go from there…perhaps even profile other printers equipment and make your money back =O lol.

Log in to reply.