The problem of inaccurate color printing

Many printing companies often encounter customers saying that the colors are not accurate, but the printing factory has said that it has done its best. Where is the problem? In particular, now that computers are well-developed, designers can color their hands and use the two keys to set the colors. This type of work was formerly a more professional work of color separation and platemaking, and it is now in the hands of different workers. Whether they have enough printing common sense, what ink system, paper characteristics, dot gain, color separation settings such as total ink volume, UCR, GCR, UCA, etc., of which the spot colors and four colors are more often encountered. Regardless of. All of the above problems will have the opportunity to make the colors inaccurate. With this in mind, the author hopes to share some experiences with you in the following sections.

Printing ink classification

The inks specified in the desktop design software are divided into two major categories, Spot Color Ink and Process Color Ink. Let's take a look at four-color inks. There are three systems of four-color inks used in the current world, including: Japan Standard, American Standard (Swop Standard) and European Standard (Europe Standard).

The three ink colors are based on people in different regions have different preferences for color perception. Ink in Asia is dominated by Japan, which is usually brighter and the colors are exaggerated, while the ink colors in Europe and America are more natural. For spot color inks, there are several sets of standards, such as Pantone, DIC and Toyo Ink, which are subdivided into general spot colors, fluorescent colors, and metallic colors. The color designation includes four-color and spot colors. The designer should depend on which type of ink is used for the final printing. Which color set of ink is used for the design, or the desired effect may not be obtained.

Four-color and spot color ink color matching system

Most typesetting and drawing software allows you to use both spot colors and four colors in the same manuscript. It also provides an option that allows you to select spot color printing or convert spot colors to the closest four-color dots. Why use four colors and spot colors on the same print? The most common reason is to include a photo while still matching the exact company color, for example, for those used as company logos or product packaging.

Spot color printing is available when there are only one or two colors on the page. Moreover, spot color printing is based on different color requirements with spot color inks. Some spot color inks contain colors that cannot be obtained with four primary colors, such as silver, gold, fluorescent colors, and some bright colors. Spot colors are often used in places where printing color accuracy is critical, such as company logos, packaging, and so on.

Four-primary printing is based on a certain proportion of three primary colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks are printed on paper to produce various colors. When there are more than three colors on the page, printing with the four primary colors is the most appropriate, and four-color printing of full-color images is essential.

Due to different needs, there are different color matching system choices in most of the software. The most common ones are Pantone, Trumatch, Focoltone, DIC and Toyo. They are applicable to different countries and regions, and they are also divided into spot color series. And four-color series. Therefore, when designing a color match, please use the series of ink systems according to the printing process to select the color matching system. And to buy a color sample of the selected color matching system as a reference, because the colors seen on the screen, there may be some differences.