Help! The color I print for my STDs is different than whats on my screen!

[Jessica&Adam]

Help!! I am trying to "test" print my boarding pass STDs on my color copier/printer at work. However, on my Word document on my computer screen the colors look great (aqua and coral-ish), but when it prints its usually darker, the coral looks like red, etc. I just can't get it right - when I lighten the colors its too light! What do I do? I just want it to print the same color that is on my computer screen!! When it comes time to actually print the real ones I will probably go to Kinkos or something...but will their printers print different shades of the colors I want too? Is there a way I can find more colors to use than what Word provides?

 

I'm not a big DIY'er so this is all very confusing and hard for me!

 

[wclark5179]

Have you color balanced your screen?

[Jessica&Adam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wclark5179 Have you color balanced your screen?

I dont even know what that means or how to do it!? It's a work computer, so maybe, or maybe not!

[rodent]

your monitor is most likely not calibrated. most peoples are not unless they do work where they'd be concerned with it.

 

a monitor shows RGB color (red green blue). You print in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow & black "key")

 

You know how your printer has cartriges with those colors of ink.

 

You can convert from RGB to CMYK, but you still have the issue with your monitor not being calibrated. Still, most of us DIYers don't buy the software for that.

 

hope i'm not confusing you more.

[cheese_diva]

Your color monitor displays in RGB and you're probably printing in some other color format... here's what I did...

 

Take a blank word document and create a bunch of boxes with various shades. Print it out and keep adjusting the color values until it's correct.

 

Do this on cheap regular paper.. bunch of squares on one page that way you won't drive yourself printing over and over... when you find one that's close you can tweak it.

 

Other girls have had the same problem.. maybe do a search for RGB on the forum and see if that helps, but I know it's been addressed before.

 

If you're printing on a colored paper, your ink will appear darker because it has color behind the color you're printing. (hope that makes sense.)

[rodent]

I'm trying to think of how you can fix this. I don't have wedding colors so i didn't worry too much about the true color that would print. others have put more time into colors & maybe they can help.

 

I don't use word for design, but I'm going to check it out & see if you can pick more colors...

[Jenn6603]

I would run a test copy at Kinkos or where you end up going to print the actuals... Unfortunately, the you cannot count on all printers printing out the same colours unless your monitor is calibrated (and sometimes it needs to be calibrated to the printer).

 

You may have some additional print settings that you can select or deselect - unfortunately though I am on a mac not windows so cannot direct you to where those could be found... when I send a doc to print, I can alter the way it prints by asking for less saturated colour, brighter colour, moreso like a photo, etc... It is all dependent on the printer tho and what options it has...

 

Sorry - I hope I didn't confuse you more!

 

Jenn

[Kristin113]

Your best and probably easiest way to match your colors is to got to a print shop and ask them to look at their PMS book. It is the Pantone Matching System book. In there you will be able to find the color you want and get the exact color combination for either RGB or CMYK printing. It will tell you the exact numbers to plug in, and don't worry about what they look like on screen, they will print to the exact color you saw in the book. I have about 10 sets of pantone books here at work, if you would like to post a color block of the colors you are trying to print I can try to match it up for you and give you the color codes.

[COFPhoto]

Every computer monitor is different, as is every printer. That's why we have to have our monitors calibrated to work along with the photo printers at our photo lab.

 

You said that you were "test printing" at work - do you plan on doing the final printing on that printer as well, or somewhere else? If you're doing the final printing somewhere else, then the colors you're getting from your work printer are irrelevant.

 

This is something that people should always keep in mind when they want to do their own printing. Most people who don't do photography or graphic design for a living think that photos etc. will look just like they do on their computer screen. But if you turned up the brightness on your monitor, would that make your photos brighter?

 

If this is not the printer that you're doing the final printing on, I wouldn't even worry about it. But I would definitely try to get a test run done on the printer that I am using. =)

[rodent]

oh good answer. also you can go to More colors-->custom and see the RGB numbers for your color. so if you find the right shade to print is R=40 G=67 B=15 then you can right that down & always know what color is your color.