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Watched a guy at the Pike Street print shop fix a muddy green by adding 4% magenta
Was picking up a shirt order in Seattle last month and the press guy was fighting a kelly green that kept coming out army drab. He looked at the proof, said 'too much yellow is lying to you,' and bumped magenta up 4 points on the fly. Two sheets later it matched the swatch perfectly. I asked why that works and he shrugged and said green is just cyan and yellow arguing, and magenta breaks up the fight. Anyone else ever fix a color by adding the one ink you'd think would ruin it?
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pipergonzalez9d ago
Color theory gets weird because ink isn't light. On a screen green is just green pixels, but on press you're stacking translucent layers and the top one eats light the ones under it needed. So adding magenta can pull back how much yellow actually shows through, which sounds backwards until you see the sheet.
That press guy probably learned it from decades of watching proof sheets, not from a book. Wild that a 4 point bump saved the whole run.
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