Epson stylus pro 4880 press proofing help

[banjoman]

We have an Epson stylus pro 4880 for printing proofs for our Presstek 34DI. We had it all calibrated and ran some proofs and it does a good job. Now, we have a new pre press person that doesn't really understand how this works or much of any of this works. She wants the proofer to print what she sees on the screen and when it doesn't then something is wrong with the proofer. I tried to explain that the proofer will print a proof that will match what the press is going to print. What doe I need to do to fix this, Can I get her monitor calibrated to show what the proof will look like instead of a raw PDF file that looks good? I did run a couple tests and the proofer is fine and matches what the press prints. Everything she sends me is light and lacking magenta and has too much yellow.

 

[bdenitto]

Do you have color bars on the proofs? Show her that the proof is in spec. Do you have a variety of monitors in-house? Chances are since they are not calibrated, they do not match each other, show her that there are differences & that she will need to interpolate them.... Even under the best circumstances with calibrated monitors, different room settings, ambient light, windows, etc. will also affect how things look on screen.

 

[dabob]

You can't fix it . . . you cannot reproduce cyan on a monitor and you can't print a PMS 185 with process colors even though the monitor can display it as a bright red - to make it short the monitor is RGB and the press is CMYK - the two gamuts don't collide in our world -

 

[mastegman]

ASSUMING you have a colour calibrated working environment including your monitors and ambient lighting/viewing conditions, a "pre press person" should know how to use and understand the Adobe Color Settings and ensure they are synchronised across all applications. While they may not be responsible for calibrating and profiling your monitors they should also be able to use the Proofing setup In Photoshop, understand how profile settings can affect InDesign and Illustrator files, as well as the Print Production tools in Acrobat and the colour management settings for your output devices and workflow. If they don't understand those things they are NOT a "pre-press" person.

 

[roscoe]

try this-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfR2xVvrp3U

 

[Werby]

You can't fix it . . . you cannot reproduce cyan on a monitor and you can't print a PMS 185 with process colors even though the monitor can display it as a bright red - to make it short the monitor is RGB and the press is CMYK - the two gamuts don't collide in our world -

Of course you can fix it. You may not be able to get the monitor to perfectly match the proof, but if you calibrate and profile your monitor and use your preset profile (or proofing profile) for soft proofing within Adobe CC products, the monitor will do a remarkably good job of matching the proof. You do need a decent monitor that is consistent over time and you do need a colorimeter to calibrate and profile, but it is not hard or that time consuming.

 

[Correct Color]

Seems Werby is the only one posting here that understands there is a crucial distinction between calibrating and profiling.

Calibrating is getting a device to a certain state. Profiling is characterizing it in that state.

They are not interchangeable terms.

We have an Epson stylus pro 4880 for printing proofs for our Presstek 34DI. We had it all calibrated and ran some proofs and it does a good job.

I'm curious when you say you "had it calibrated." Did someone come in and do this for you?

Thing is that that Epson should have a gamut significantly larger than your Presstek. So what happens when you use any device to proof any other device is that first the proofing device has to be profiled, and then the device it's proofing has to be profiled, or it at least performing close enough to some industry normal color space to use that space as its profile, and then the proofer has to be told to emulate that color space/profile.

If all that isn't done, then you're not really using that Epson as a proofer.

As far as your pre-press girl goes, it's a pretty reasonable bet that yes, if her monitor was profiled correctly, that she should be able to soft proof to the profile you're using for your press, and what she sees should match the proof pretty closely.

If you need someone to set it all up for you, well, that's what I do for a living.

I'd be glad to.


Mike Adams
Correct Color