I am a graphic artist for a screen printer. We just recently made a major leap from CorelDraw 11 to X6. I am having a problem in that when I use Pantone colors they look correct on my monitor (Matches Pantone book), they look fine when converted to .jpgs, but they do not always print out correctly from my printer. As an example Pantone 375 is a lime green, but it prints out like a darker Kelly green.
I know x6 has a lot of color management options. But there are too many options and I am confused with what to change. So far all changes have had no effect on the print outs.
Any other suggestions? I have tried all suggestions so far to no avail. I have changed almost all of the color management settings at one point or another and my colors on paper are still darker and weirder as an example like this...
Hi Andy,
If you do not know what each color management setting does exactly it is best to leave them in factory default state, "playing" with settings usually does more harm than good.
We still do not know how you print spot colors - what is the printer, do you use PostScript driver/RIP? The reason colors print the way they do for you might have nothing to do with color management settings. Many Pantone spot colors ( Pantone 375 CV too) are very bright and saturated, some printers simply can not simulate them at all - their inks can not pull such bright colors, especially on uncoated paper. Using factory settings I did a quick test printing Pantone 375 CV to few consumer-level inkjets and laser printers and in all cases I have got a reasonable color match. The results you show are a bit extreme and almost look like you are printing on newspaper stock.
Gennady
Pantone colors are specially mixed inks, none of the laser printers can print them, what they do is simulate with own CMYK inks/toner a particular Pantone color, the point is spot colors are eventually converted to CMYK anyways by the printer's driver/firmware. Depending on the printer model, its toner , printer color settings and Pantone color the result may wary. The closest I have is Ricoh CL4000 color laser and with default X6 settings it prints Pantone 375 CV simulation as bright lime, not as bright as on the screen, but this is exactly what I would expect.Look at the Print dialog, Color tab, make sure that default settings are set: "Use document color settings", "Color conversions performed by: CorelDRAW", "Output colors as: Native", "Convert spot colors to" box is unchecked. Make sure you are using PostScript driver for your printer. Finally, make sure that any color management in the printer driver is turned off ( this is just more predictable, you can keep it on, but then you should change "Color conversions performed by: to "Printer".
At the moment I do not see a reason why possibly it wouldn't work, short of messed up settings in Print dialog or perhaps in printer's driver. But if it still doesn't, check "Convert spot colors to" box on the Color tab of Print dialog and try CMYK and RGB color models.
I have all settings as you have described with no luck.
Did a test out of Illustrator 6 which I do not usually use and the colors seemed fine.
I will try to get with the printer people and see if there is a better/different driver I should be using.
Thanks anyway. I appreciate it.
Andy47240 said:I have all settings as you have described with no luck
Can you post screen captures of your CorelDRAW and printer dialogs, all the tabs but especially the color tabs.
I have no idea why I seen the separations dialogs.
I printed out some test pages from the printer itself and I have printed Pantone 375 from Photoshop and Illustrator and they both printed fine. CorelDraw is the only one printing too dark.
Here are my current Color management settings
And here are the two main print dialogue screens to my printer.
Could you post captures of the printer dialog from the Windows control panel access points, please expand anything that has to do with color.
David. I could show you a screen shot of anything. I am not 100% sure of which part you would want to see?
I need the content of the color tabs from the CorelDRAW printer dialog as well as the printer dialogs themselves, especially any advanced settings.
These are all settings as I have them currently. Most settings have been switched to one thing or another at some point, all resulting in no visual change when printing. I can elaborate more on any specific tab or setting that you think may help. And...I appreciate your time.
The Corel Print General Tab
The Corel Print Color Tab
The Corel Print Composite Tab
Image showing where I get my pantone colors from
Ricoh Print quality 1
Ricoh Print quality 2
Ricoh Print quality 3
Current Corel Color Management settings.
In the Corel print color tab try setting color conversions performed by to the device not CorelDRAW
I changed to color conversion to device and there was no change in the print.