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Color matching is off. Colors are not printing the same as they appear on screen or do not match PMS colors. (All Products)

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Question
Color matching is off. Colors are not printing the same as they appear on screen or do not match PMS colors. (All Products)

Answer

Color matching is off. Colors are not printing the same as they appear on screen or do not match PMS colors.

Inkjet printing on label stock or discs can not be matched to PMS colors. PMS colors are derived from specific paints that are mixed for that specific color. The paint is printed on the paper and sits on top of it with no interaction between the substrate and the paint. Inkjet is completely different.
 
With inkjet printing the printer driver interprets the color based on the CMYK or RGB values in the source image. The printer then mixes cyan, magenta and yellow right on the media. The ink then soaks into the top layer of the media. This is the point where the color can change from your intended color. Different media types can affect the color greatly. Primera media has been specifically formulated to make the best match possible, but even then you'll never have perfect match to PMS or to the screen. There are some things you can do to get it close. Those are listed below.

Color Matching Driver Settings.
Toggle the color matching setting in the driver. For Bravo PRO, XRP, SE or an LX400, LX800, LX810 printer, toggle between Graphic and Photo mode. For a Bravo II or XR, toggle between Prima Color and Z Color. For the LX900, try different combinations of Color Matching and Media Type. In Windows, the color matching settings can be found in Start-Control Panel - Printers and Faxes - Right Click on the printer name - Choose Printing Preferences. On a Mac these settings can be found by choosing Publisher/Printer Settings under the Copies and Pages drop down menu on the print options screen.

File Type. If you are printing an image file directly or importing an image or a background into SureThing or Nice Label, certain image formats work better than others. Try JPG, TIF, BMP. All of these format choices are available from the "Save as" or "Export" screens of popular graphics programs.

Image Mode. Try changing the image mode of the source file. (CMYK or RGB) In Illustrator, image mode options become available after you export the image. In Photoshop, they are available by selecting Mode from the Image menu.

Print from Source.
If possible, try printing directly from the source program. The source program could be Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Image quality and color interpretation can be distorted by exporting images into JPG, TIF or BMP format and then further distorted by importing that image into SureThing or NiceLabel. (Note: This is only possible if you are using an LX series printer or are Printing Only using a Disc Publisher.)

Print from Adobe Acrobat. If you do not have the source program or the source file, ask your graphic designer for a high quality PDF of the graphic. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free and it is a great printing program that maintains very accurate color compared to the source image. (Note: This is only possible if you are using an LX series printer or are Printing Only using a Disc Publisher.)

Tweak the Color of the Source. Exact color matching of the printed discs to the screen may never be possible since there are factors that are out of the driver's control. The surface of the disc reacts with the ink in the cartridge to produce the color. For this reason, it may be necessary to tweak the color of the source image to print the way you want on disc. In this case it is possible that the color displayed on screen may not be the color that you want printed, but when the disc is printed it looks the way it is supposed to look.

Note: There are many other printing problems that can look like color matching issues. The solutions above are only applicable if the disc looks vibrant, bright and fully saturated but the colors are off. For all other issues search the knowledge base for "Print Quality" under your specific product. Many of these problems can be solved by manually cleaning the ink cartridges.

 


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Views: 12891 Created on: May 25, 2014
Date updated: Jan 14, 2015

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