Colors that don’t match? We make life easier

The best way to look at a workflow is to consider every step of the way, from initial image to screen to desktop printer to prepress and production and to press. It’s a long road with specific areas of expertise along the way. No matter where you are in the chain, you would get an overall understanding of the whole process with deeper knowledge of your specific area.

Whether you’re a photographer, an artist, a designer, a retoucher, a production artist, a prepress operator, a printer, there’s a lot to find out. Photographers, for instance, grapple with whether to shoot in RAW format and whether to deliver RGB or CMYK files. How much retouching should they do? What’s the best way to communicate with the client? Ad agencies have always juggled fast and high volume printing with color accuracy. Is there a machine somewhere that will give them predictable color fast? Printers look for standards that will allow them to match a proof to their press, and a press to another press. Should they move to G7?

With evolving technology comes an endless supply of new questions. In our commitment to provide the best possible solution, we test RIPs, new software, papers, printers. If you’re curious about a specific RIP or printer, please give us a call.

Proofing is a word that means a lot of different things. Softproofing for example, is finally available and so precise that press sheets are matched to monitors. Inkjet proofs can achieve a match of greater than 98% consistently and have become today’s contract proof. Some inkjet printers have sophisticated built-in color management including a spectrophotometer. And laser printers who could never produce accurate color consistently are finally reliable for fast, high-volume accurate prints.

On press, things move all the time. Standards are constantly questioned and new methods developed. Do you go with SWOP or with G7? Or both? Should you accept a file displayed on a monitor as a contract to match on press? Who decides what the standards will be and how do you make sure that your file is correctly printed?

Photo Courtesy Remote Director