My brand refresh failed because I ignored the printer's color profile

I spent 3 weeks perfecting a moody dark green for a client's brochure, but when the samples came back from the shop in Austin last Tuesday, it looked almost black. I forgot to convert from RGB to CMYK early on, and the shift was WAY more dramatic than I expected. Has anyone else had a color shift disaster from skipping that step?

2 comments

2 Comments

dixon.rose17d ago

The same thing happened to me once but with a bright coral. Spent two weeks tweaking it on screen and when the prints came back it looked like faded salmon. Turns out my monitor wasn't calibrated either which made the whole thing worse. Now I physically take a Pantone book to the print shop before I even start designing. Saved me from a lot of headaches since then. Digital color is a liar and print will always tell the truth.

josephf1017d ago

Stick with getting a Pantone book in hand early like that. I've seen guys spend days tweaking a color on screen only to find out their monitor was showing something totally different than the printer could ever hit. Once you match it to a physical swatch and lock in the CMYK values, you cut out 90% of the guesswork.