Just noticed printer proofs always come back darker than what I see on screen

I do flyers for open houses and I keep getting proofs back that look way darker than my monitor shows. My Epson printer at home matches the screen fine, but the commercial shop says my files are off. I checked and my monitor is set to sRGB, but I still get muddy shadows in print. Is there a specific CMYK setting or soft proof I should use before sending files out? Has anyone else had this issue with real estate marketing materials?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathang675d ago

Honestly just save your files as Adobe RGB before you send them out. sRGB looks fine on screen but commercial printers stretch that color space different and it pushes everything dark. I had the same muddiness on my flyers until I switched to soft proofing in the CMYK profile my shop actually uses. The shadows clean up a lot once you preview how their press handles the blacks.

gavinwood5d ago

Wait, are you saying you convert from sRGB to Adobe RGB before sending files, or are you actually working in Adobe RGB from the start? Because those are two different things and one will mess you up way worse than the other if your monitor isn't calibrated for it. I tried the soft proofing thing once and ended up with cyan skin tones on a batch of business cards. Took me forever to figure out I was proofing against the wrong paper type. What profile did your shop give you, GRACoL or SWOP?