Color Matching

[ElJay]

I'm sure this has been talked about here many times, but....How do you guys do it? Generally, to save time, materials and my sanity I'll print out a Pantone color chart and an RGB color chart (clean, sharp, vector-based .eps files I found on the web.) on whatever printer will be used and try to find a close enough match for the sample the customer provides. This is fine in most cases but not for the occassional super fussy ones. I know I can mess around with Photoshop/Illustrator settings, ink profiles, spot color replacements in the RIP (which I'm not all that familiar with), etc. and print out about a million color samples while trying to hit a particular red or blue but it's such a time consuming headache. Is there a better way?

 

[Sticky Signs]

I find a color that's close and make a 1"x1" box with that color in it. I put another box beside it with the same fill only this time I make some adjustment. I repeat the process until I feel I have enough swatches to hit the color I'm looking for. I also number each box so that they're easier to identify. I print off the boxes and compare them to my target color. Sometimes I get lucky and hit it on the first try. If not, I pick the color that's closest to my target and start the process over again until I get the right combination.

 

[Bly]

This is why you should invest in the ability to profile your own media for the printers in your shop.

Once you have your media profiled you simply

Open > Preflight > Print.

Time and media saved = priceless.