When you’re a business, it’s important to minimize errors as much as possible. The competition is already knocking at your door trying to take business away, meaning you really can’t afford to make too many mistakes internally. Some of the most frustrating yet common types of errors in business are those made when printing. Certain colors can be incredibly difficult to reproduce accurately. Here’s what you should know about troublesome colors that are hard to get right when printing.
1. They Don’t Call It Mellow Yellow for Nothing
Yellow is one of the most troublesome colors to work with in terms of getting the exact shade that you desire when printing. Often yellow will appear lighter than desired on the printed page or other material.
For some businesses, depending on their brand colors, a lighter shade of yellow can be particularly upsetting. For example, if a brand’s colors consist of yellow and blue, if the yellow that’s printed is excessively light, it will show poorly with the blue,which can make it appear even lighter.
If your yellow is too mellow, consider speaking with some experienced print experts. They can point you in the right direction and help you optimize your print environment so that you get the colors you want.
2. White Will Keep You up at Night
Perhaps one of the most frustrating troublesome colors of all in printing is white. Depending on the shade, the color’s natural purity makes it a troublesome color to replicate. If you’re looking for more of a cream or an eggshell white, you might be in luck, but pure white can be hard to print.
3. Purple Can Be a Royal Pain
While purple isn’t one of the most commonly used colors in marketing and promotional material, it’s undoubtedly one of the most challenging colors to print accurately. Whether there is a correlation here or if it’s merely a funny coincidence is debatable.
The color purple has long been associated with royalty, which is quite fitting in this case as it can be a royal pain when printing it out—one of the most troublesome colors.
While purple is difficult to print accurately, the reasons behind this difficulty are rather compelling. The color purple has elements in it that fall outside of the printable gamut. Purple is among the deepest and strongest of colors, which makes it hard to capture. Its distinctive hue, saturation, and chromaticity all serve to make it more difficult to print,
4. Black and Brown
This example is specific to barcode printing. It’s often best to avoid using certain pairs of colors together, namely black and brown. While they may be printed correctly, the combination will be hard to scan, resulting in poor performance.
5. Light Blue, a Troubling Color
Light blue is another one of these troublesome colors that can be hard to get right. That’s because most colors will appear lighter on the screen than after they’re printed. Most colors turn out slightly darker when they’re printed. That’s because you can’t print light, which is why colors appear darker after they’re printed.
Mastering the Art of Troublesome Colors
If you’re serious about color quality and you’ve been struggling to print colors in the shades you want, it pays to seek out some expertise.
One thing that you should keep in mind is that printed colors will never be 100% perfect. You should also know that many struggle to print colors with even 70% accuracy. When you work with color management experts, they can help you print colors with much higher accuracy.Always remember, effective use of color is integral to your brand. Your brand colors are powerful assets that are worth investing in.
FAQs
Five-color method. Five-color printing uses the four-color process method, applying the four standard inks, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, to create a full color document, but adds a spot color PMS ink to accurately reproduce a specific color.
What is the 5 color printing process? ›
Five-color method. Five-color printing uses the four-color process method, applying the four standard inks, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, to create a full color document, but adds a spot color PMS ink to accurately reproduce a specific color.
What colors should you avoid when printing? ›
To ensure that your colors are accurate and consistent, use the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) color mode, which is designed for printing. Avoid using RGB (red, green, and blue) color mode, which is meant for digital displays and can result in dull or unexpected colors when printed.
How to get colors to print correctly? ›
How do you get accurate colors from your printer and monitor?
- Calibrate your monitor. Be the first to add your personal experience.
- Choose the right color space. ...
- Soft proof your images. ...
- Adjust your printer settings. ...
- Test print your images. ...
- Maintain your equipment. ...
- Here's what else to consider.
Blue is probably the hardest color besides gray to print in CMYK. It's also one of the most common wedding colors, especially the “perfect dusty blue” that has been tough to create for many of my clients.
What are the five 5 types of printing processes? ›
Different printing methods
- Digital Printing.
- Flexography.
- Offset Printing.
- Rotogravure.
- Large Format.
- 3D Printing.
- Screen Printing.
The "four-color" in "four-color printing" refers to the four ink colors—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK)—used in offset printing presses and many digital presses. These four colors are combined to make a wider range of colors.
Why are my colors not printing correctly? ›
If your printouts have incorrect colors, try these solutions: Make sure the paper type setting matches the paper you loaded. Make sure the Black/Grayscale or Grayscale setting is not selected in your printer software. Run a nozzle check to see if any of the print head nozzles are clogged.
How to calibrate color for printing? ›
The first step in printer calibration is to calibrate your monitor. Then, make sure you use the correct printer driver for your printer. Within the printer driver are controls for fine-tuning the overall appearance of color from your printer. Depending on your needs, this may be sufficient to get the color you want.
Should I work in RGB or CMYK for print? ›
For most purposes, and most users, working in RGB should produce the best results. If you want to embed or assign a profile to your file(s) we recommend Adobe RGB 1998. Conventional wisdom holds that you work in RGB for screen-based work, and CMYK for work that will be printed.
Perhaps one of the most frustrating troublesome colors of all in printing is white. Depending on the shade, the color's natural purity makes it a troublesome color to replicate. If you're looking for more of a cream or an eggshell white, you might be in luck, but pure white can be hard to print.
What color setting is best for print? ›
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) is the colour space for printed materials, so you should be using the CMYK colour profile for any design that will be physically printed.
What is the best CMYK color for printing? ›
The most brilliant colors achievable using CMYK are solids. First, 100% of cyan, magenta, and yellow will appear as the most colorful colors available in print. Again, these colors will not come out as bright as they appear onscreen.
What is the process of color printing? ›
Process color printing is generally composed of black, cyan, magenta and yellow inks that are mixed in varying proportions by jetting droplets onto the fabric to create a variety of colors. The color gamut achievable by mixing only four colors of the same chemistry is far less than the colors obtainable in spot color.
What is 7 colour process printing? ›
The 7-color print ensures soft color gradients, which is particularly effective with light colors. In the case of image motifs such as faces, skin tones are displayed particularly naturally. Due to the three additional shades, the grid is less visible.
What are the 4 color printing techniques? ›
These four colors are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, Which are known collectively as CMYK. In fact, 4-Color Process printing is frequently referred to as CMYK printing. It is also known as Four-Color Printing, 4CP, Full-Color Printing, or simply Process Printing.
What are the different types of color printing? ›
There are two ways to print in color: RGB or CMYK. RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. The RGB color mode combines these base colors in varying quantities to form just about any color you can imagine. For example, if you want to create a yellow color, you would simply combine green and red.
When you’re a business, it’s important to minimize errors as much as possible. The competition is already knocking at your door trying to take business away, meaning you really can’t afford to make too many mistakes internally. Some of the most frustrating yet common types of errors in business are those made when printing. Certain colors can be incredibly difficult to reproduce accurately. Here’s what you should know about troublesome colors that are hard to get right when printing.