Have you wondered why your printed materials don’t quite match the file on shown screen? Or why there is a variation in your printed materials across different suppliers when the same file was provided to both? There are a few factors that could cause this, one answer could be in the colour format the file was provided.
Hunter Signs requires your print ready files to be provided as CMYK as this provides more vibrant and accurate prints. To understand why – it is first important to understand the different colour breakdowns and where they are predominantly used.
RGB (Red, Green and Blue) colours are typically used for digital only assets, for example; website and digital advertising – anything that is shown on screen. This format has a larger colour gamut, meaning there is a greater range of colours available to choose and is appropriate for digital use as screens use the basis of RGB to display colour in each screen pixel, meaning your design and colours should be consistent with your branding when displayed on screen.
CMYK is used for most printed materials as this is the way the printers are formatted and set up – they have four ink cartridges pulling the correct ration from each colour to print the desired finish. Providing art files for printing in this format means the printer is more accurately able to interpret the colours required to reproduce the desired finish.
However, in saying that, there are other factors that can impact this – laminated surface vs non-laminated and the material used. If you are printing a range of items, we recommend printing in one batch from the same printer. Alternatively, you can request a print sample and we can match the colours to allow for any variances.
Pantone (PMS) colours are often specified to ensure colours are printed consistently. These can be added to CMYK and RGB files. It is important to note that there can be slight variances when breaking down pantone colours to CMYK for printing. Different programs used can interpret these colours differently and cause slight visual variations in the final print. Again, for consistency in colours across your brand, we recommend colour matching and keeping a record of the breakdowns used to achieve the required colour for future reference.
There is a greater control over consistency and print quality with the inks when using CMYK. We can monitor the grey balance, which is the control and regular evaluation of CMY to consistently get good greys. By balancing these colours, we are better able to ensure that the colours within the CMYK spectrum are consistent and printing as they should.
For more information on designing your print files or for your free quote contact the friendly team at Hunter Signs.