Proofing Pantone Colors

[rich apollo]

Yes, we have two 9890s but I'm looking to get even more accurate color to solid pantone colors.

Inkjet proofers will get you about as close as you're gonna' get.

What are you trying to match - a swatch book or the L*a*b* values? You may need to change how the PMS colors are defined in your applications. Are you defining them by CMYK values or L*a*b*?

Your RIP may allow you tweak it's PMS look-up tables.

You might consider changing the paper you're proofing on.

Using ColorThink and your proofer profile you can find out if your proofing process is capable of hitting the colors you want.

As stated, you would have to go through additional steps to accurately proof PMS tints.

[lucascalvo]

For a Good PMS i will recommend add the a Epson 7900 a Starproof software that create dot proof and also allow you to calibrate automatically the Pantone with a Delta E under 2 on Delta E 1976 measure. That will allow you to match a good PMS with your epson plotter. We are working in a new solution to allow use actual paper stock on the Epson and work with Pantone. But is in beta in this moment. That will have PMS, CMYK, Dot Proofing and actual stock on Epson 7900 or 9900

[M&M Displays]

A good printer and rip will only take you so far. EFI's Pantone lookup table gives us so so results. What we have found that works great is..............Catzper

http://www.catzper.com/ISAPI/CATZper...19vfbkn0l3b2gx

Even then on every proof we make we put the disclaimer "This Is NOT A Pantone Matching Device, Please refer to your Pantone Guide for accurate representation of Spot colors

[Ed_]

Overprinting Spots and transparency effects are another concern for the standard inkjet printers even with the addition of Orange and Green. For the closest possible proof, a from film proof system that uses actual inks matched to the PMS color is what we use for proofing Pantone colors. The proof can be produced on the actual press stock.

[comholt]

Thanks Stephan,

Yes, we have two 9890s but I'm looking to get even more accurate color to solid pantone colors.

Anyone have any experience with either Fuji's Final Proof or Kodak Approval?

Jud

Jud – We have a fair amount of experience making Pantone colors (and tints) match on Epson printers. I can concur with the other respondents that the x900 series printers have the largest gamut around. With Epson proofing papers you should be able to hit 93-95% of the PMS colors. The good news is your 9890s are great printers as well, hitting 80%+ of the PMS colors. We’ve worked most extensively with the EFI XF family of RIPs. They have excellent “out of the box” spot color matching plus a very nice utility for building custom definitions.

Please let me know if you’d like to discuss further.

--Clark
Spectraflow