That overflow job in Jersey made me stop trusting default ICC profiles

I was doing a big run of event posters for a gig in Hoboken last month, like 500 of them, and every single one came off the press with the reds looking like brick sludge. Turns out the shop's default profile was set for coated stock but we were running on uncoated, and nobody checked. I spent 3 hours remaking one proof with a custom profile and suddenly the crimson popped exactly like the client wanted. Now I always ask what paper the printer actually loaded before I trust any preset, no matter how many times the shop says it works. Anyone else get burned by a profile that was fine on one job but garbage on another?

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allen.reese17d ago

That "brick sludge" thing hit close to home... my buddy runs a small print shop outside Philly and he had the exact same garbage happen with a run of menus for a brewery. The owner trusted the default profile for glossy cardstock but the supplier sent them a matte finish instead, so all the deep browns came out looking like wet cardboard. He only caught it because one proof sheet happened to sit under a fluorescent light and the label text was basically invisible. Now he keeps a little swatch book of the actual paper stocks he's got on the shelf, and he makes the press operator initial every new job before it goes to the machine. It's crazy how one little setting can wreck a whole batch.