My print shop guy swore RGB files were fine, now I get why he was wrong

I run a small sticker biz out of my basement in Cleveland. Last month I sent a batch of custom laptop decals to the local print shop, bright neon green and purple design. The owner, Dave, said don't bother converting to CMYK, he'd handle it. Big mistake. What came back looked like the colors got washed in bleach, the green turned muddy olive and the purple went gray. He admitted he just hit print without converting. Cost me $180 in wasted vinyl and two pissed off customers. He blamed my screen, I blamed his shortcut. Now I convert everything myself in Illustrator before sending. Has anyone else had a printer swear they'd color manage and then completely ignore it?

1 comments

1 Comment

logan_schmidt3h ago

Honestly Dave probably thought RGB was fine for print since most home printers just handle it, but he still shoulda warned you about the neon shift.