I'm new here and this has probably been dealt with numerous times, but I have been unable to find it. I have an image I imported from a pdf, it has a process color (magenta) and a couple of Pantone spot colors. In one case the 2 pantone colors are used in a gradient fill of some text. My first samples were off (I had not noticed but the buyer did) and now I have to print 36 copies and I can't hit the colors my monitor shows me.
I use CorelDraw X3, I have a Brother GT-541 Garment printer (CMYK), I have color management turned off and I have the design set as RGB. The colors should be a sort of Pink to a Cerulean Blue, and a purple, but I'm getting Red to a lighter Navy and a darker Barn Red.
I thought maybe out of gamut colors (Illustrator said that- it also had the exact same problem). Any ideas? The buyer is picky or I would not be here.
I'm definitely not the color guru here... but I recently had an issue of my own. But first why would you turn off color management? Second you won't come up with an absolute match because you are talking different chemistries and too much to go into here (read some of the other posts on the site and you will understand the intricate business of color between desktop, printers and such). Next you can't expect the RGB world to give you a Pantone result. However; in my estimation you can get close. I had a logo with a specific pantone color, so I used the Pantone chart to translate the CMYK percentages. You can then go into the fill palette for the design and correct with that. This will give you a closer approximation - in fact the cards I worked on came back this week and looked spot on! Hope that helps. Oh and setup your color calbration with at least the basic of profiles.
The instructions for the printer advised specifically to "Turn Off" color management. I think they expect their driver will work perfectly. After some additional tweaking using their color pallette for CorelDraw, I have come to the conclusion that they are wrong. At least as it relates to these colors. It does not like to print pink, and that is what I need here. It isn't too great at purple either, I hope this is not a problem that gets a whole lot bigger. This is a Brother GT-541 Garment printer and normally, it is soooo easy to deal with. Thanks for your input! Oh yes, and they say that the driver is expecting RGB info. so we don't use CMYK unless you have to.
Sounds like I'm not knowledgable enough about this printer. I have spent the past 3 years working on a new business plan that includes textile printing, but with dyes. I think you may need to invest in some color calibration equipment so you can take measurements to get closer. Seems odd to me that you are printing to RGB however.
The printer is an inkjet design, CMYK w/ water based inks. It's print area is 14" X 16" and it can do that in about 75 sec. It handles 600dpi and has enough memory that the entire design is kept in the printer so the PC is continuously sending the file like a normal desktop printer. The inks are formulated so that after printing, you heat the shirt in a heat press or screen print dryer to 356° for 35sec. Then it is permanent.
I can print around 50-75 shirts an hour with an average cost of $0.41 ea. Nice deal.
I decided not to fight it anymore, so I tweaked the colors so it was printing what I wanted to see. You see, Brother tried to "Dumb it down" so they made the print driver work optimally when it was sent RGB information.
Recently, ERGOsoft came out with a RIP for it, but at $1,100 (reportedly), you really need to print a lot of T-shirts. I probably will add it in the future so I don't have to fight it so much for some colors. Really though, it usually is "dumb dumb simple". Perfect for me!
I had an appointment and rushed out, forgot to mention that Pantone also makes an RGB equivalent chart. Do a little searching on the web and you'll find it. It will convert an RGB value as close to a Pantone as possible.
You are essentially talking about sublimation, which I've spent a fair amount of time with. One of the issues with sublimation, is the heating, it has the potential to alter the chemistry. You will see some changes depending on your printer/inks and even the amount of pressure/heat. Quite frankly if you must please some fussy clients you need to invest in color measuring equipment and yes, you would probably be wise to invest in a RIP, this will solve your issue. If you will be doing this professionally for a long time, it will be money well spent! I have used most of them... you might check Scanvec for software, but as RIP's go that's not that bad of a price.