Back when I used to eyeball CMYK values instead of measuring

I remember starting out with t-shirt printing back in 2015 and thinking I could just guess the magenta and yellow mix for a good red. One batch of 50 shirts for a local band in Portland came out looking more orange than a traffic cone. Had to reprint the whole order and ate the cost of the screens. Now I always check my density readings with a spectrophotometer before I burn a single screen. Has anyone else ruined a run by trusting their eyes too much?

2 comments

2 Comments

riley5815d agoMost Upvoted

Oh boy, does that bring back memories. I was doing a rush job on some vinyl banners for a farmers market back in 2012 and I thought I could eyeball the Pantone matches for the green in their logo. Turned out looking like a swampy brown instead of a nice fresh lettuce green. The client was nice about it but I could tell they were disappointed. Now I keep a small swatch book right next to my work station and I check it about three times before I commit to anything.

thompson.xena15d ago

And the worst part is that you don't even realize it's wrong until the print comes out and you're standing there holding it like... oh no. I had a similar thing with a deep red once, thought I had it perfect on screen but it printed out looking almost maroon. Now I swear by those little swatch chips, I even tape the matching one to my monitor so I can stare at it while I work.