A senior pressman told me to always add 5% more yellow to skin tones...

I ignored him on a rush job for a local real estate brochure in Austin last month. The faces came out looking like they had jaundice... just a sickly greenish tint. Had to reprint 500 copies on my own dime. Guess he was right after all. Anyone else get weird advice from old-timers that actually saved your butt?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_shane9d ago

Gotta push back a little here. A Pantone guide taped to the console is fine, but if your eyes are that easily fooled by fluorescent lights you've got bigger problems than yellow percentages. Sounds like a lot of overthinking for something that usually just comes down to knowing your specific press on a given day.

wrenh799d ago

Old pressmen know their stuff because they watched ink dry the hard way. That 5% yellow trick is solid, but I've also learned to bump up the magenta just a hair when printing Hispanic or Asian skin tones. Also, check your lighting in the press room, if you're under fluorescent tubes your eyes will trick you into thinking the yellow is too strong when it's actually dead on. I keep a Pantone skin tone guide taped to my console for those rush jobs, saved me from a reprint more than once.