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Spot colors in a PDF proof, do you trust the swatch or the screen?
I had a job last Tuesday where the customer kept asking for a deeper red, so I tweaked the spot color in the swatch panel, but the PDF export still showed the old one because the proof was set to simulate overprint. My team is split on this, half say always trust the swatch values and check the separation, the other half say make the screen match what the client sees on their monitor. Has anyone else gotten burned by this where the printed piece matched one but not the other, and which one do you go with before you hit send to the press?
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diana551mo ago
Did your customer end up signing off on the proof before it went to press? I feel for you because that overprint simulation setting has burned me more than once and it is such a sneaky trap. What happens is the screen is just showing you a guess at what the press will do, but the swatch value is the actual number the RIP will use to build that plate. If you tweak the swatch and the proof still shows the old red, then the proof is lying to you, plain and simple, and the client is looking at a lie. I always go with the swatch value and then check the separations panel to make sure that spot is really carrying the new color and not still holding the old one. The screen can look pretty all day but the plate is what actually gets inked, so trust the numbers and make the proof match them, not the other way around.
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