Color management/calibration for printing..help!

[furry_cup]

yo!

I have designed some new business cards for the company i work for.

And i know in the past i have sent things off for print and they have come back different shade to the screen colour etc..

So im looking into calibrating my monitor.

Never done this before can anyone help me out on what to do. im in photoshop cs2 and for this, i will most probably send them a a high res PDF straight from PS.

So basically what do i do to calibrate it for printing with an imagesetter printer not inkjet/laser.

thanks for any advice

 

[sneeks]

The only real reliable option is to use a pantone book/chart to select the colors you require. Even with calibration a screen or standard printer will never be colour accurate for colour accurate print purposes.

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[furry_cup]

£54.. thought they were more expensive than that.

is there any way i can even slightly get my screen similar to the print finish? i dont want to end up hvaing a proof which is the wrong shade of blue, and having to make trips to the printers.

heres the design:

 

[McBunny]

£54.. thought they were more expensive than that.

is there any way i can even slightly get my screen similar to the print finish? i dont want to end up hvaing a proof which is the wrong shade of blue, and having to make trips to the printers.

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm

 

[Rich]

Any colour critcial job always get a proof done.

 

[TeZ]

i work for a printers u dont need to calibrate your monitor mate, because every printer uses differnt inks etc and paper presses and differnt colour spaces, just get them to a Cromalyin Proof if your really botherd or use MORE expensive spot colours will be exact colour match ... u can never get wat is on screen TRUST me.. PM with what your doing and the art ill tell u what will happen to your design if anything or any problems send me a PDF of your art i got 5 mins now

 

[furry_cup]

i want the txt to be raised, i think its cxalled thermography..? and the image to be UV coated..

 

[TeZ]

what use is that Dosnt the printer have that? u will have to supply your art in a seprated PDF yea?... Stick to CMYK but just make sure your blacks are K only not 4 colour so theres no registration issues

send me a PDF

 

[Longy]

as long its not set up in powerpoint and RGB which we often get here!

Stick to the pantone guide and you can't go far off the mark - like its been said already you'll never get a perfect match.

 

[TeZ]

yea i get RGB files even from ubsoft somtimes but the worst is registration on poor board i.e uncoated and 4 colour blacks make sure u use a good doble coated board you should get a nice finish on that card nice design by the way.. will you be machine sealing the card?? if so that can often make it look a yellow on white so get them gloss or matte laminated .. IMO

 

[furry_cup]

ive not done much print work so dont really know about it prepress etc..

powerpoint..lol!!! may purchase a pantone guide me thinks!

double coated.. un coated.. aaargh!

nice and shiney is what i want i think!

 

[Longy]

Looking at that design though the light/thin font - your gonna need perfect registration printing if its printed full colour.

 

[furry_cup]

can it not be printed with a single spot colour..? or i guess not as there are different shades of blue?

 

[Longy]

can it not be printed with a single spot colour..? or i guess not as there are different shades of blue?

Not unless you set it up single colour not CMYK. Or even black then the printers can print it in any ink you choose

 

[TeZ]

yea can do but you will need to re do art work as single colcou in illustrator etc and grayscale the image.. send them a Black only PDF they will then CTP it as black but will print in your chosen spot colout .. registration shoudnt be that hard on 4 colour text that big but the small fonts at bottom may cause an issue

 

[TeZ]

god were printing geeks longy... where do u work mate?

 

[Longy]

god were printing geeks longy... where do u work mate?

haha true m8 - work at a printers in Newquay.

 

[furry_cup]

Not unless you set it up single colour not CMYK. Or even black then the printers can print it in any ink you choose

didnt know that.. id lose the dark and light edges on the graphic though wouldnt i?

 

[TeZ]

no u shouldnt do mate not if its a good RES pic grayscaled shoudl look sound

 

[furry_cup]

thats a good idea, at least the image would come out the sahme colour as the text which is what im slightly worried it wont do as the graphic loks a bit purpley

 

[TeZ]

yea got quiet a few tones in , the pdf u sent .. the logo's etc are all sligtly differnt shades lol really bizzare

 

[Longy]

Not unless you set it up single colour not CMYK. Or even black then the printers can print it in any ink you choose

didnt know that.. id lose the dark and light edges on the graphic though wouldnt i?

Yeah I think you might lose some definition on it. Of course there is a simple work around and get it printed on a digital press although you can't beat traditional litho in my book.

Speak with the printers your going to use and ask their opinion on it - might not be a problem at all.

 

[TeZ]

Litho all the way we havea 8 colour hiedelburg and 5 2 colour presses here lol, Digital is poop, well not poop but not as good

 

[furry_cup]

tez psd should be uploaded now.

 

[TeZ]

done pmd u mate.. still no good need to do it quark PS is pants rastorizes all text PDF looks plop

 

[Longy]

yeah if doing text in photoshop the file needs to be a minimum of 600dpi at 100% size otherwise you get jaggies

Ideally do the picture as a tif drop it quark/indesign then do the text in quark/indesign - export the file to a press ready PDF.

oh and make sure you add bleed!!!!

 

[furry_cup]

yeah if doing text in photoshop the file needs to be a minimum of 600dpi at 100% size otherwise you get jaggies

Ideally do the picture as a tif drop it quark/indesign then do the text in quark/indesign - export the file to a press ready PDF.

oh and make sure you add bleed!!!!

lol! that is how i usually do it mate, using tiff/eps images and drop them into Quark, tbh i dont really know why i did this card all in PS, got carried away i think! :-/

 

[TeZ]

lol good old clients giving me no bleed on projects and ivening me 200DPI files happy days

 

[TeZ]

ALL done and SORTED

 

[furry_cup]

cheers for the help yesterday peeps.

been looking at the pantone formula guides.
how come there are so many types of pantone ranges, like pastel, solid and whats the difference between matte, uncoated and coated? and prcoess?

 

[TeZ]

alot of differnce.. coated gives a slight gloss... uncaoted just a plain colour... pastel very subtle pantone i.E PASTEL lol.... ummm, matte gives a sort of ruff texture when dry process to me looks shite... i would normally use say a pantone CV coated varnish very nice finish, but otherwise there pritty self explanitory.

 

[furry_cup]

but it all depnds on what paper your printing on right? will a coated colour leave a slight gloss on any paper/card stock?