Color-Camm Colours

[Mike Brown]

…there are quite a few of us would like to aim something at Rob…come on them Lambie – let’s hear it…(you’ll probably need your universal translater on to read it though Andy)…hehehe

[Brian Hays]

The PC-600 isn’t gonna print the same colours as on the screen. The best thing to do is make up a colour chart & print it so you can see how the colours are going to come out. There should be a file "chart.cdl" in your signlab folder, it isn’t that clever though so i recommend you make up your own.

Rob may know a better way being a PC60/600 fan and all. He is very close to his PC60 takes it for walks & all sorts 😀

[Martin Pearson]

Robert has already answered this question, if you look in the tips & tricks section under PC60 questions and answers. He explains how to set up a colour chart.

[Robert Lambie]

ok ok let me in let me in….

ah the pc-60 😆 😆

your right martin i have covered it. here are the links andy.
if you have any more questions , just ask. ide be glad to help if i can mate.

http://www.uksigngroup.com/pc60questions.htm

http://www.uksigngroup.com/pc60&edge.htm

[Andrew Blackett]

I did the colour chart thing within the first week of having it.

Rob, what do you do if you have to print an image from a jpg file such as a customer logo, you obviously can’t adjust the colours within that, especially with jpegs because it can be obvious that you have changed colours as the fades don’t match.

Any ideas mate!

Its gonna be one of my questions when I see the guys on the roland stand next Wednesday

And my machine is a pc-600 not 60, I’m not showing off I’m just proud of my baby 🙄
ANDY

[Robert Lambie]

and so you should be andy. i think for the price, they are great machines.
not saying they are cheap mate. anything but.
but when you consider the nexts machine up that does the same job its cheap. and in my opinion for the average sign shop its the best buy for you. had my PC60 for years now, no complaints.
some will say "crap rob" but have they purchased one? or are they an end user?

anyway .jpg files?
this is a difficult one. i think when it comes to images the only real problem ive come across is the colours seem to be slightly darker.
to acheive a brighter image, i would go into photoshop and go to "image" then "adjust" then "brightness & contrast" in here you can brighten the whole pic as you see it on the screen. works great!
i then print it out. (im sure corel has somthing like that in its package)
telling the customer about the darker shades upfront always helps. they normally agree to go ahead anyway.
but just incase and i always do this no matter the job.
print a little 5×5 inch scaled down image & show the custmer how it looks before he gets it done. if he agrees you have a nice little sample for your reception. if he doesnt… 😡 then you still have a nice we sample for your reception 😀
i take it your just doing a direct scan of the job. a photo?
if not and its a graphic then digitise it to vector and change the colours as you go along. remember to explain to the over fussy customer, if you have to do this there will be a set-up charge. they soon resort to the first idea.

[Andrew Blackett]

cheers rob,

Do you use signlab or just corel, we’ve just got colourmaster version 5 installed at work and the fella that brought it (simon from lettering systems) showed me how to do the digitise part in signlab but I can’t for the life of me remember how, any ideas?

The other problem is I haven’t sussed out how to contour cut around a jpeg image properly, if for example the image was this:

The cut line would be like the dotted one where as I want it like this:

Any ideas or know anyone who might??

Did you manage to upload the pics I sent, if I can get the boss to have a look at them tommorow I might be able to persuad him to pay for my membership 🙂 What sort of discount(s) do you get on the vinyl?

UP THE COLOR-CAMMS!!! (I hope nobody takes that as an obsenity)

ANDY

[Robert Lambie]

well andy.
i would not use the fascility to create a contour cut on an image. theres to many things can go wrong. its best to just digitise the outside of the image. then click on make contour cut object.
then click on the knife/pen icon in the tool bar at the bottom in signlab.
then click make "hairline".
the basic stages of digitising are simple.
when digitising straight lines just click on each corner of the graphic. working your way around it.
if you come to a curve. right click on the mouse and select the circle icon
& proceed around the object. if you come to a corner or straight line. just right click again and select the cross. again proceed.
always make sure you keep going until you come to where you started. then click back on the first node.cross. this closes the shape.
if you feel the shape could be neater. just double click on it and it changes back to nodes. you will at this point have a pen again. select the node/cross you want to move and using the arrow keys on the keyboard move it were you wish.
i know this is vague but should get you started.
best of luck! 😛

if you have a vector image. then just apply an outline to the graphic of about .02 of an inch. then select the outline only and click layout or arrange i think. then click "make contour cut object"then click on the pen/knife icon second from bottom of tools. then click "hairline" & thats about it really.
again…best of luck mate.

[Mike Brown]

…nice reply Rob…but, (like the guy who stumbles back into the cabin in the film Jaws and says "we’re gunna need a bigger boat!")…"I think we’re gunna need a bigger web-site" 😉

[Paulsad]

This colour issue is probably relative to the standard printing method used with cmyk – its a problem in the print industry generally that basically you can’t faithfully reproduce every spot colour – in fact far from it. What they call the "gamut" (range) of colours in cmyk is far less than your monitor can produce or your say epson inkjet can. What you have to do really is to calibrate your monitor to show you more of what you will end up with when printed – convert your images to cmyk in your software first.
In print we have "cromalins" where the actual cmyk films are used before going to plates to produce a very accurate proof – important when the final print run can be hundreds of thousands and the customer says "I’m not having those my logo’s not the right colour" – If you face this senario in print you would usually print cmyk and use an extra spot colour (sometimes more) to reproduce say a logo colour accurately.
I use a piece of expensive software which when linked to an epson 3000 can produce a more (but not dead on) accurate proof – this deadens the colours to cmyk ouput.
Hope this is helpful.

[Glenn Taylor]

Paul is absolutely correct. Color calibrating your monitor and scanner is an absolute must.

I also recommend is getting a Pantone "Solid to Process" color chart. It will save you a lot of headaches when you try to match colors using CMYK.

[James White]

Can anyone explain how to calibrate monitor,scannerprinter.

James

[Martin Pearson]

What software are you using James as some software allows you to do this as part of the set-up, you should also have a utility with your scanner which allows you to do this. There is dedicated software available to allow accurate matching of colours between monitors, scanners, printers etc but I believe it is very expensive.