-
Customers keep requesting I use their CMYK values!!!!
I keep getting questioned by customers about using the CMYK values they’ve supplied me with as they’ve found that it’s the colour they like.
For example the customer sends me a blue logo, the blue is set as Pantone 286 C, they also give me CMYKs of 100/70/0/0. I say to them that I will change the CMYKs for our printer so that the finished print looks like Pantone 286 C. They then say ‘No, please can you use the CMYKs I’ve supplied as this looked correct on (wait for it….!) my desktop printer and/or my monitor’!!!!
Please let me know if I’m missing the point, but aren’t the CMYK values completely dependent upon the output device? (e.g. printer calibration) and will look different on different devices depending on how/if it’s been calibrated?
I’m 110% sure that I’m correct but when I get so many customers questioning me, it makes me wonder…..please back me up….. 🙁
-
11 Replies
-
You are correct in thinking YOUR CMYK will be different from THEIR CMYK unless they are running practically the same kit as you.
Also no guarantee on that either as I have two white vinyls I use – both are different shades of white and push the colour tint around a bit.
The only thing you are incorrect on is being 110% sure – you can’t be more than 100% 😉
Solvent printers are a PITA for colour matching anyway and can result in some interesting results especially if somebody has designed in RGB.
-
thanks, for the reply, yes we use many different vinyls here that are supposedly ‘white’ but some are blue-white some are yellow-white and give completely different prints of the same CMYK.
I guess it’s just a matter of educating the clients (which is alot easier said than done!)
What’s a PITA? (and don’t say similar to a Naan!)
Thanks.
-
Pain In The A$$ 😀
-
PITA = Pain in the aft-region
-
Technical Term :lol1: :lol1:
-
However CMYK values are good reference to what you want between printers (calibrated and run from a RIP system)
Monitors can be calibrated to simulate printers.
Pantone is however more accurate for transferring "the colour information required", Each person is responsible for keeping their pantone matches as close as possible on their printer. Recently I have noticed not all RIP have pantone libraries!!
-
ah yes should’ve known what PITA was really!
trouble is that my clients will more than likely probably not have any of their devices calibrated, it’s just trying to explain in simple terms why we didn’t use their CMYK refs.
thanks all for confirming that my colour management training hasn’t all gone to waste!
-
Your color theory is correct. The problem you are having is that your clients know you are printing with a four colour process. PMS colours are spot colours and are mixed using 14 base colours plus black and white. If you used spot colours in your job you’d have no dither the colours would be solid.
That’s why a Pantone Bridge book is handy so you can see the conversion between a spot colour and that colour in a four colour process.
You need to educate your customers in that ink, materials, environmental conditions all affect the colour being printed. If they want to have an accurate colour consistency between all their print media then they should specify pantones so that all their printers can be on the same page.
A lot of the time I can hit closer to the actual Solid Pantone then the same colour in Four Colour Process with my printer and this should also be communicated to the client.
-
I’ve never done any printing so my answer is purely based on common sense… cant a colour chart be shown to client and then you do to suit?? hope my 1p input is valid!!
-
quote Gavin Conway:I’ve never done any printing so my answer is purely based on common sense… cant a colour chart be shown to client and then you do to suit?? hope my 1p input is valid!!
Fine if it’s a solid colour/shade – but it all gets screwed up when it’s multiple colours or pictures!
-
ok… point taken
Log in to reply.