Colour tone wrong using CMYK - same settings in Illustrator print fine?

[MARKOLARKO]

I have used the colour picker to define a cmyk colour (C80 M00 Y11 K00) which appears on the screen as printed by my offset printer in the town. However if I print this to my new HP2605 Laser jet the end result is way way off what it looks like on the screen.

However the same process - using (spit) Illustrator CS2 produces an accurate representation of the colour when printed on the laser printer.

Even if i use a screen grab of the correct looking Xara Extreme image it still prints wrong?


Can anyone (GarryP maybe?) assist?

[gwpriester]

Hi Mark and welcome to the Xtreme Conference.

Are you previewing the color in Xtreme using Window > Show Printer Color > Simulate Print Colors? This will give you a more realistic version of your printed colors and should also be closer to the color you will see in Illustrator.

Gary

[MARKOLARKO]

Garry - Respect - I have been doing your tutorials ever since the very first version of Xara. Thanks.

Back to question. I have done as you sugest and yes it represents the colour much better in that view - HOWEVER...... It still prints out a completely different shade when I print to the HP 2605 printer.
If I print to an Epson Acculaser it works fine.

So the question is this - If Illustrator prints out the colour as expected to the HP 2605 and Xara does not - could that mean that the way Xara presents itself to the HP is the problem?

I will happily take this up with HP - but I am sure they are goping to point a finger at Xara?

It is getting even stranger - If I scan (Epson 1260) the 'corrupt' colour the results (In Photoshop CS2) are perfect - just as they should look -

If you can get hold of a Pantone PMS3272 you will see what I mean. Compare this color to PMS2995 (Target colour) and you will see the tonal shift
I have attached a .xar file with the details.

[gwpriester]

If you can get hold of a Pantone PMS3272 you will see what I mean. Compare this color to PMS2995 (Target colour) and you will see the tonal shift
I have attached a .xar file with the details.

I'm not sure why this is but I suspect it has something to do with Printer drivers and possible with color profiles.

I specified the color PMS 2995 using X1's Pantone Spot to Process colors and printed the color out on my HP DeskJet 6540 and the color came out very close. I compared the printed swatch to a coated and uncoated swatch from my Pantone Color Specifier. The coated was a tad more saturated which is expected and the uncoated with a tad deeper. But in both cases the color was very close. When I used the Presentation Printing setting the colors were even a tiny bit closer, and I suspect printed on a good photo quality paper at Photographic setting the color would be even closer.

Keep in mind that a CMYK version of a Pantone Spot Color is not always going to match exactly. If you have been following my tutorials and rantings all these years you have freaquently heard me say that out of all the Pantone Spot Colors (colors intended to be printed as specially mixed, solid colored inks) that about 1/2 can be matched exactly, 25% are very close, and the remaining 25% do not come close.

Gary

[sallybode]

I have had good success with my Epson home printer to juge the output for commercial printing. Creating swatch book of commonly used Pantone process colors helps in adjusting your screen also for proper output.

That way if you have your own swatches of dependably reproduced color in front of you, you can make better choices and avoid expensive mistakes.

It is well to keep these in a notebook for ready reference.