Expert: Glen Demers - 12/16/2009

Question
When I send my documents to the local print shop, the very light blues look grey and richer blues look purple on their prints they do for me.  Before sending the files I print on my personal printer and everything looks great.  Color settings are CMYK.  Anything I can do to correct this?

Answer
Hi Shaun,

We get lots of files from customers that look washed out when printed compared to their own inkjet prints. Most home inkjet printers try to make pleasing photos, they do this by using 6 to 8 ink cartridges or by saturating the colors. Most operate from RGB files and convert on the fly to CMYK. Your monitor as well, is displaying RGB color that is backlit. It can produce many more bright reds, greens and blues than can be printed on an offset press. A good first step would be to calibrate your monitor and work in a darkened room.

We use our printers for proofing and have calibrated them to reproduce the same CMYK gamut as our presses. If you are having your documents printed then get a color proof to approve before the pressrun. If you just want a print of your file then look for a place specializing in color output for display, they can offer many choices of media and are generally closer to matching what is on your monitor.

If you are going to be printing your files commercially, familiarize yourself with CMYK color. Buy a swatch book and see how colors are made up in process color. Light blues should be primarily screens of Cyan with very little Black. Dark rich blue that contain 100% Cyan and over 65% Magenta,  such as Reflex Blue, will tend to look purple. Some bright reds and greens cannot be reproduced in CMYK. There is an excellent article on process color here, along with an RGB to CMYK comparison: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/cmyk-color.htm

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

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