Screen Colors arent printing properly using Illustrator CS 1

[wjgrayson]

I am working with logos that have a specific PMS color that are in an illustrator.eps original form. I in turn export that logo as a jpg. I paste the jpg into a word document. The colors look fine on the screen. When I print the jpg, the colors are COMPLETELY wrong. Not kinda off, but REALLY off (maroon prints out as reflex blue!).

When I save the file as a png file and print it, I get the correct colors. Any ideas what's going on?

By the way, the colors print fine from the native illustrator.eps format. I'm experimenting with the conversion as a jpg for other users and vendors to use in MS Office files. I know the png file works, but there could be other applications where I need a jpg that has the correct color. Thank you.

 

[Eggles]

JPGs cannot retain PMS colours. They can only be RGB or CMYK. It might be worth trying to save that Illustrator logo as an RGB WMF, as this is a vector format acceptable for MS Office applications (most of which can only accept RGB graphics). But even then I am not sure if you will get a good approximation of the PMS colours. It depends on which PMS colour you have chosen, and it may be that the PMS colours you have chosen are out of the CMYK (or RGB) gamut. And then nothing exept offset printing with that particular ink colour will get the true PMS colour.

Try checking the gamut problem in Photoshop with that PMS colour. (What's the colour?)

 

[wjgrayson]

Thank you for responding. The colors are:

PMS 302 (bluish) and PMS 418 (gray).

Funny: I think I've printed out the colors before as a jpg properly, but it was on a different computer and a different printer. But your explanation makes perfect sense.

 

[MarcusStringer]

They are both achievable colours when converted to CMYK, I don't know if they will match up when converted to RGB though, they should be...

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[Eggles]

If the Pantone numbers you gave refer to 'Coated' colours, then according to Photoshop, both are within the CMYK and RGB gamuts. In Photoshop 7 the breakdown of each is as follows:

PMS 302 (a teal sort of blue) is 100C/18M/0Y/51K and 0R/89G/131B

PMS 418 (a brownish colour) is 0C/0M/30Y/79K and 91R/89G/69B

In Illustrator 9, the CMYK for 302 is 94/45/34/24 and RGB is 1/64/90 (both different to Photoshop)

For 418, the CMYK is 0/0/30/79 (same as Photoshop) and RGB is 54/54/38 (same sort of ratio but different numbers).

As you can see from the above figures, each program has a completely different interpretation when converting a PMS colour to CMYK or RGB. Which is why PMS colours - if they are to be accurate - must be printed with spot inks and not as a process colour (mixture of C, M, Y and K).

I just did some tests - I created an AI file consisting of some basic shapes filled with your two PMS colours, added a little text and then exported it first as a WMF. I inserted it into a Word doc, and it came through with the colours looking just as they did in AI (at least in my monitor), with the text nice and crisp.

I then exported as a maximum quality JPG, (only choices for colour model were RGB or CMYK or greyscale), which I placed in Word; I tried both CMYK and RGB. The colours came through looking lighter then the original (esp the blue) or the WMF when saved in CMYK but looked a lot closer when saved as RGB, and the text looked like crap.

Interestingly, the file size of the JPG was over 30 times that of the WMF. So no quetion - export the logo as a WMF - it is scalable as it is still a vector format, the text looks sharp and crisp and the file size is way smaller. And all MS apps will accept WMFs.

 

[MarcusStringer]

When working with different Programs, Always make sure you have the correct Pantone info.

The Article in the below link tells you why you have different percentage break-downs with Photoshop7 and Illustrator 9

http://www.pantone.com/support/support.asp?idArticle=73

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[Eggles]

Thanks Marcus (Maryborough, huh? just 'up the road' from me [Melbourne]). I knew there had to be a good reason for the discrepancy. Turns out it's my older version of AI.

 

[wjgrayson]

Thanks, you Aussie dudes, from a California Illustrator novice for your detailed answers! My weekend chore was to locate the RGB & CMYK equivalents, because we also use the same colors (not the logo) in MS OFFICE applications,and I wanted to see what happened if I plugged the corresponding RBG values into an MSOffice color palette.

You've saved me some time so I can go explore other aspects of Illustrator.

Doncha just love the internet?

W!

 

[MarcusStringer]

Well, who would have thought....

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[MarcusStringer]

Eggles,
Well...who would have thought ...
Cold ain't it?

What line of work are you in??
Email: marcus@midlandtypesetters.com.au


Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[Eggles]

Marcus

I do the 'typesetting' (in Pagemaker) for a small suburban printshop. In other words, I am their desktop publisher - creating new publications, fixing others that come in for printing - you know the drill.

 

[MarcusStringer]

Eggles

PageMaker....Really??

I worked for Australian Print Group (pre-press) for 8 years before McPhersons Print Group bought it out. Jumped ship to Midland Typesetters 2 years ago.

Really...Pagemaker...yuck.

You may come in handy for some of our Pagemaker stuff...
Can you send me your details?
Marcus@midlandtypesetters.com.au

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[Eggles]

Yup - Pagemaker really!! I love it, but looking forward to one day switching to ID when our printshop finally moves into the 21st century. Email sent as requested, as I am more than happy to do PM stuff.

 

[wjgrayson]

From the California guy:

Hey, the only reason I'm in this forum is that our company graphic designer is still clipping along in the 20th century with an old version of pagemaker, quark 4.1, and Imagesetting equipment that can't get past Adobe Postscript Level 1! I'm the marketing coordinator for a bank and realized that all of our advertising agencies and printers are working in Illustrator and other up-to-date programs for our marketing materials.

Don't feel abashed or ashamed if you don't "feel like you're in the 20th century" with your software and equipment. Our graphic designer is still on OS 9.2.

(Now, you know it's bad when me, a PC dude, has actually had to learn Mac OS versions to tell our designer she needs to upgrade to get the latest design software!)

 

[MarcusStringer]

California guy:

Dont mean to be rude, or anything, but, Sticking with a designer who doesn't keep up, limits your ability to produce quality products, (to be able to take advantage of new features, transparencies, etc) which may give you the edge over someone else....I know you work for a bank, so I guess It doesn't matter as much.

Anyway... good luck

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[wjgrayson]

Marcus:

Your comments are spot on. Be advised that, twenty years ago,it made financial sense for our Bank, a regional financial institution, to invest in a full blown print shop setup including a graphic designer/typesetter.

Today, we're stuck with it, and they are analyzing the cost benefit of maintaining the shop over outsourcing all of the functions. Because it is a questionable investment, our pre-press section hasn't received the support it needed to keep up.

So, this is why I'm having to figure out Graphic Design stuff on my own.