What adjustments are necessary to match printing to monitor display?

First, I'm really enjoying Xara, which I purchased recently to design a custom card deck. However, after a long process of mixing and matching with the Color Editor to get just the right colors, I discovered that the specific colors and their brilliance aren't showing up when I print the images. The design was created with CMYK, 300 dpi, per the specs of the printing company which will produce the final product.

I've read everything I can that addresses this subject and I somewhat understand the inherent difference that what you see on-screen is not what you get printed. It isn't that the end result is bad; it's just that it's not as impressive (to me) as what I see on my display. I'm hoping that if I can create a beautiful luminous image from my lowly Brother desktop printer, that it's a sure bet the commercial printer will also produce a great image. Is my only recourse to experiment with the colors over and over until they look the way I want them to when printed out? There are several 4-color fills, as well as the fractal plasma background. Experimenting would be quite tedious.

On the attached image, the card on the left is a screen capture of the monitor display; the card on the right is a scan of the printed card. Neither one precisely duplicates what they actually look like (I created the composite image in Photoshop Elements), but it's a close enough depiction. Of course, everyone's screen will render the image differently :eek:

I'd be happy to attach the actual .xar file if that will help.

Also, if anyone knows how to somewhat easily transform the flat image of the moon into a sphere shape, please advise. I watched a tut on YouTube on how to create a sphere, but it had so many steps that frankly I got confused and the result was not even close to a sphere.

Thanks in advice for any advice or information.

Welcome to TalkGraphics

What is difficult for most people to understand is there is a world of difference between screen colors (RGB) and printed color (CMYK). Screen colors a composed of shades of red green and blue lights (LED) or phosphors. The gamut or number of colors that can be seen is much much higher for RGB color.

So even if your monitor is perfectly calibrated, the difference between what you see on the screen and what you see when printed is quite different.

The process color cyan prints much deeper, what I would call Peacock Blue. Blues, greens, violets tend to shift a lot and in printed form are much less bright and vibrant.

I have a very well calibrated monitor that can display over 1 billion colors vs. 16.7 million colors for most monitors but I know that the printed colors are going to look different.

I have been doing this long enough, and coming from a background of pre-computer advertising and graphic design, I can more or less predict how certain colors will translate from the screen into print. But in spite of what some people claim, to me it is still an inexact science.

My basic rule of thumb is, does the color look convincing. For example, if someone looked at the printed version of your playing cards, would they know if the color was shifted one way or the other? Now if you have flesh tones that have shifted towards green or purple or red or orange, these are more obvious shifts. But if the printed output is convincing, then that is all that really matters. Because your end user only sees what is in front of her or his eyes.

In addition to what Gary has said, you may want to view your work using simulated print colours before making a print to paper.

Although it is not exactly how the colours will appear on paper, it will give you a sense of how the colours may shift.

The two sphere images are an example of how the show print colors option shifts the colours. The first is exported with Screen Colors enabled, the second is exported with Simulate Print Colors enabled.

Thanks so much for the quick replies! First, gw, I appreciate the clarification. I knew there was a difference, but didn't know exactly what was causing it or how to adjust for it. However, it looks like soquili has shown the way by pointing out the "Show Printer Colors" option.

Wish I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, and start from the beginning. But as gw noted, if the observer doesn't know the color has shifted, then it makes no difference. Still, I'm going to try again with the Show Printer Colors option and see what happens. Maybe it won't take me as long as it did the first time. :cool:

Edit 1 hour later:

I selected the Show Printer Colors and, wow, everything went purple! But in the process of changing colors, et cetera, I experimented with Live Effects and found that the Emboss function allows me to adjust shine and luminosity. I printed it out and compared the versions. The result I got, shown here, still needs more work, especially on brightening the moon and the background, but I think I'm on my way. Thanks again :)

Hold on, Bill stated that it is only an approx. of your actual output, there are two or three other methods I use! I tend to have quite a restricted palette that I use and I save it as a template and with those colours all displayed I get a wet copy of how they look printed so see what they actual look like when done in CMYK and I also print there values next to the colours. Next I always tick "View PDF when finished" as it also shows how dull the colours can be as they darker colours will all look washed out. After you have done a few print jobs, with the fist few I would always get a wet copy of your work, as your experience grows you will need less and less wet copies.

If you have a bitmap editor most will allow you to look at an RGB type file .png or .jpeg if you are going to use it in you Xara doc. and see the out of gamut areas which you have to rectify before importing it into Xara.

Hi, Albacore

The problem is that the final product will be printed by an out-of-state company, so it's a little difficult as far as comparing what I have to what they'll print. They requested CMYK, but this is my first experience with CMYK and there's a lot to learn. I've created several color versions of the design, all in the blue range, and one of them is now pretty close to what I'm aiming for. They'll be sending proofs, but I don't want my lack of expertise to cause them to have to create several sets of proofs.

It's interesting that if I export a PNG using screen colors, it prints what it looks like on the screen display, but if I export while the image is displayed with Simulate Printing Colors, it prints those colors. Unfortunately, due to what I've discovered about monitor vs. printer, the face side of all 60 cards will have to be redone. This is what happens when a novice gets hold of a program like Xara. :o

You can always take a PDF to a local firm and get a print out just to see what it will look like and depending on the size it should only cost you 1$. It gets even more complicated than that as different monitors will show RGB colours differently and most designers for print will try and set up their monitors as true to the RGB values as they can. There are many firms which will sell you equipment to do this like Pantone, have a look here: http://www.pantone.co.uk/pages/panto...tone.aspx?ca=2

Also using Pantone bridge from your colour galleries in Design Pro 6 you can view all patone colours and then using any Pantone to CMYK converters which then you can imput to Design Pro through the colour converter. This process is a bit laborious but it is as accurate as you can get it. If you cant follow what I have been saying please don't hesitate to come back and ask. The other thing that I did was to get printed out a colour chart in CMYK with their values alongside and then if your monitor is reasonable match those colours to your screen colours and then type that in to your colour editor in CMYK values. This also works and that is why I work with a limited colour palette.

Might I also mention that if you are printing on a home or office printer (inkjet/laser printer) to get an idea of the colors, your results could be quite different than what your professional printer produces!

I found that using a Pantone color selector chart was the key to success. Don't try online versions....not the same!
No matter what my local in-house printer produced (it was calibrated for pantones), or what my screen told me, if I set my primary colors in my Xara product to use Pantone, I got the same colors back from the printer.
Worked with several commercial companies with different technologies for printing pails, boxes, bags, catalogs, binders, portfolios, jugs.
Yet all were successful because we knew the colors before the file was sent to the printer bcause they were chosen from standardized color chips.

Using Pantone colors is a great way to be clear and specific what your result should be. Blue, not purple, etc.
You can buy a Pantone book (looks like a ladies fold-out fan) with color chips all numbered. Coated and uncoated
http://www.pantone.com/pages/product...t.aspx?pid=998
I found it saved time and headache, with far less guesswork or disappointment/misunderstanding.

Simply flip through the book, choose a tone.
If you are using Xara Design Pro, Pantones are included and you will find the colors fully listed.
Choose that and you know that when you send your document to the printer the color of the deck will match.
I tended to use "pantone Spot Colors" in Xara and when exported to PDF, the file retained the colors properly and when brought into Illustrator, all the pantone shades were identified properly.

I definitely appreciate all the advice. Because my product is custom playing cards, I'm using a company in Florida that specializes in that. They've been great with assisting me. They will be sending me proofs to review, so that will help. I think what I'll do is send them a chart of proposed colors, they can print that chart, send it back to me, and then I'll know what colors I'm dealing with. Unfortunately, there are now 4 more designs, all of which use gradients. This is going to be a long tedious process, but such is the nature of color, I suppose. Trying to re-do everything in Pantone colors will drive me nuts, I'm afraid.

I'm in Oregon, so probably what I need to do is ask them what their equipment is, and find somebody within a 200-mile radius that uses the same equipment.

I'm in Forest Grove, Advocate.

I usually work with B&B PrintSource in Tigard. They can most often give great advice regardless of equipment. I am usually available as well. If you want contact details, PM me.

I have Pantone CMYK color swatches and other swatch books I can loan.

Take care, Mike

Very nice offer indeed!

Advocate and others in Oregon:

John here; live in Beaverton and work in Portland.
Attachment 81022

One of the simplest methods I've used, when trying to pick a color that will print the way you hope, is shown in the above attachment. Print it out, see what looks best, use the eye-dropper tool to apply the chosen color to an object, then name the color.

Also you could create you own Xara Document of color swatches and print them on your own printer, then in the future use the printout to pick your colors and not pay to great attention to what may be displayed on your screen.

That said, I feel that it is VERY IMPORTANT, when first creating a graphic is to use NAMED COLORS or CREATE NAMED colors right off at the beginning. That way, for example, if you use use gradient color-fills or change your palette you can IMMEDIATELY change the colors used in your graphic in a matter of a few mouse clicks.

Final Note:

The company I work for has used Willamette Print and Blue Print for many years for a variety purposes (for printing engineering drawings, large color presentation posters, proposal covers, etc.) . They are very good and easy to work with, they have a variety of products/media, and their personnel doesn't change.

Their main office in N.W. Portland and if you can, go there and ask to see their products and take a tour of their place. Whether you can go there or not, make sure to call ANDY (in their "color department"), he is a customer's delight.

You can easily control the color for a job on any printer -- IF you know what printer the job will run on.
Do this:
1. Make a color chart, rectangles filled with different colors, with small text hex code, RGB, or Pantone notation, whatever you work with.
2. Make a PDF of the color chart, using the same PDF settings that the job will use later.
3. Output the PDF on the same press that the job will run on later. Write down the printer name/type and date on the paper output.
4. Take the printed output back and compare it to your monitor. It will look different. If you need to change colors on the computer art, use the printed PDF as your 'gold standard' and adjust the computer art to what it looks like on paper ... under normal indoor room light.

This will get you by, unless the press itself changes color settings between the time you run your PDF test and when you bring in the actual job. Try to schedule an extra day or two to always get a proof print of the job (so easy to make with digital printing) to OK before going further.

Controlling color in locally-printed jobs is simple compared to controlling color in work sent elsewhere. An ad in a magazine, for instance. All you can do is make sure you get a color check print to approve -- and, again, set your schedule to buy some extra time for a last-minute revision.

On the bright side, slight color shifts usually go un-noticed by the client. Unless it's food or fashion! Good luck!

It's been a while since I've been on this forum, and I want to thank everyone for their great offers. If only I didn't live on the other side of the state! I did create several pages containing boxes of colors and noted the CMYK values for each one. It took hours to do that, but it saved time in the long run. I finally nailed the blue color I wanted for my first deck of custom cards, but must repeat the process for another deck in red (a nightmare not to make it too orange or too brown), and then green, gold, and another shade of blue. I'm going to send a PDF of my personal color charts to the printers and they can print them out, after which I'll compare what they print with what I originally printed.

As noted, this nitpicking over the color probably won't be noticed by the ultimate consumer, but I'm willing to wait as long as it takes to make sure the colors are as close to my desired goal as possible.

Thanks again everyone for the help. It's funny, when I started this project, it all seemed like such a simple task ... :)

Save your self a lot of time if you are going to send frequent stuff to the printers and invest in a copy of Acrobat Pro or InDesign.

Albacore, it won't be frequent, and I feel like once we get this first set of projects done, I'll know what to expect. But I'm going to check out the software you mentioned, right now, thanks!