Fountain Fills Washed Out when printed

[Rudy]

I'm trying to print a gradient created in Corel using
a rich black to a pantone green (342).
Looks decent on screen but, when printed I get a muddy color somewhere in between.
I've tried to export as tif, eps, and pdf. Pretty much getting the same results. The EPS file prints the black and green nice and rich, unlike the tif and pdf's. But the washed out color is still within the blend.

I use versaworks and a 540v.

Wondering if anyone has a fix or workaround for this sort of thing?

 

[ChiknNutz]

It's all wrapped in your Color Management...the media profile your using...which includes the rendering intents and amount of ink to be layed down, along with color correction, etc. Without knowing how all of those are set up, it's hard to make recommendations.

 

[Rudy]

I understand. I was hoping it was something that has to do with the fountain fill in Corel only because everything else is correct. All my vectors, bitmaps etc., print good.
I have no other color issues.

That fountain fill is the only item that does not go through well.

 

[K Chez]

Try converting the Pantone to RGB-when you use different color models in a fountain fill (RGB or CMYK with a Pantone color) they don't ever seem to blend well and look muddy. If you are exporting to RIP, make sure the "Apply ICC Profile" box is checked, also.

 

[ChiknNutz]

FYI, I use "Adobe 1998" as my ICC profile in Corel. BTW, what are your Color Management settings in Corel? I have noticed that a lot of people just use the default, and changing these around usually makes a significant difference.

 

[Rudy]

I tried converting from pantone to rgb using corels standard formulas but, the color is off. Then I changed the fountain fills to colors in the cmyk palette and they work good.
I'm coming to the conclusion that using pantone spot colors are best when when you need a spot color and not any type of gradients. Makes sense.

In corel I use Adobe 1998 for my my ICC as well, and I have my monitor compensation on, using my monitors profile. CMYK for effect. no other options turned on.

Anyhow, thanks for the info.