Expert: Tom Rouze - 2/15/2006

Question
Hi,

Colour of my design suddently not the same as in monitor and printed out.
Pls do help
I think problem with a colour profile, how to reset it,
Thanks In Advance

Answer
Hi Roth,
This is a subject that people write small books and articles about...
So without going into too much detail here, I have a couple minor thoughts that could cause a sudden color shift.
1.  You may be running low on toner or ink.
2.  The color in the color in the file may not be in the same range as what you are seeing on the monitor.  You have been lucky so far that every thing has been matching the monitor.  In many cases it's difficult for a printer to consistanly match what you see on the monitor unless you calibrate regularly and strictly work in that color space (subjects for another time).
3.  If you have a laser printer it may have a worn imaging unit(s).
4.  Using toner or ink (not to factory spec)
Try printing a previous file that you know matched and compare it to the original print, if possible.  If the two prints match then you have a monitor issue.  If they don't match then we have to look into a few possible issues.  The next question is does anyone else use the printer or computer?  Is there high usage?  Are you printing on the same type of paper that you've been using?

Let's try that first and we'll go from there.
 
If you find that it's still not printing the same then I'll need to know a few more things about the problem.  (printer type and model, Illustrator version, recent upgrades, components or graphic elements in file, PC or Mac).  


Thank you,

Tom