Printing reds – not vibrant/browny

[David Hammond]

Certain reds can be problematic.

What printer & rip are you using – In versaworks there’s an option to preserve primary colours. It’s been a while since I’ve used VW, but it’s in there somewhere.

[Martyn Heath]

Hi david, im using mutoh vj and onyx 11

[Jamie Wood]

The best way to do this is to change a setting in the profile you are using. Click on Configure Profile in Onyx. Then select which profile you are using, and make a duplicate. Select the duplicate, and click Edit. In the Colour Management section, click the dropdown menu, and select All ICC Profiles Off, then click OK. This will force the colours to print using the CMYK values set in the artwork. Use this profile when you’re struggling to get a decent result. For a good red, you could try 100% M & 100% Y. If this puts down too much ink, you could drop the magenta to 95%, which should give close to PMS 485C.

Using this method, I’ve found that the Pantone ColorBridge + swatch book is most accurate in Illustrator, as it uses CMYK values to try and achieve the required colour. Not all of them are accurate, so you’ll need to check against a Pantone book. Most colours look cleaner when using this method, ie if you set a colour to be 100% yellow for instance, it will only use the yellow ink, and not add any of the other 3 inks.

We used this method for years on our Mimaki printers, and it worked well for us. We now have Epsons, and the colours are spot on without having to do any faffing.

[Martyn Heath]

That is fantastic jamie! sounds like it will sort out the issue. Thanks very much

[Pane Talev]

I have these files printed and mounted on 5mm pvc. I use them to match to a certain colour.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Pane Talev.

1STColourChart.pdf 2 MB PDF - Click to view

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2NDcolorchart.pdf 2 MB PDF - Click to view

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[Martyn Heath]

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