Lets talk color proofing

[behzad]

Yes color proofing for press. That is pre-press work. We all know that everyone has a different monitor and they all display colors differently, put aside the RGB because that is all we see when we design anything.

You know that even the same make computer monitors put side by side will differ in colors.

Then how do we as graphic designers are suppose to work with the right colors? Sure if you do a logo design and it takes only 2 colors you can refer to your pantone swatch booklet but what about doing a multi color job, how about photo retouching?

Final work has to go to press and you might say get a color proof done before going big on prints. But I am referring to the initial design, color assignment.

How many times you designed something that looked great on your computer and then send a link to your client and they told you that the colors are horrible, or my green looks darker can you brighten that green a bit?

With the technology advancing everyday nothing has been done on this issue. So what to do as a designer?

Fill me in on how you deal with this issue?

[gwpriester]

Have a good monitor and know how an image on your monitor is going to look when it is printed. I know this is putting the cart before the horse but after a while you learn to look at the screen and have a feel for how it will look printed.

A PDF/X file can help too. Because it will give a more accurate idea of how your printed colors will look.

And most importantly, you are probably not going to get a print job that looks exactly how you think it will.

If someone who never saw the original image on your screen sees it, will the printed piece be convincing? It is amazing how accepting people are of color images. Unless there is a tremendous color shift and the baby has green skin.

[behzad]

Thanks, It is not that bad, my worries could have been that I showed the client the colors, actually we picked them for her corporate identity and now if she sees them she might say it is too dark. I am crossing my fingers, also I was wondering maybe I should stop this habit of showing my color swatches to clients?

[Albacore]

If you are working close with a client don't you think its is worth the money to produce one wet copy and that could be from your local print shop? If your relationship with the client is over emails then the easy answer is to use Pantone. As for your monitor once a month use Pantone Huey Pro or Colour Munki as it is not a lot of money when you compare it to the cost of a large print run. All of these thing and also what Gary has stated in that after a while you get the experience of choosing correctly.

[behzad]

Thanks few obstacles , when a client request affordable printing cost, I have no choice to go with gang run, specially when they want recycled material as well. I could have gone to my specialty printer who would have charged 4 times more than what i got the job done at and had gotten the pantone and special attention to the press, but when the clients budget is low I can not do it. Anyways, I learned the lesson not to show the pantone color booklet anymore unless the payment is large.