Matching proof to customer supplied proof

[dabob]

All . . . Stephen is right you can control the color without having a rip and all the goodies . . what you can't do is get a lot of "self described color experts" to admit they don't know it all and don't have all the answers. Like I have said before in many posts . .. the worst customers I have had are graduates from Art Academy type of schools because they are graddiates of that fancy school and have learned how to swim from a book . . . . but have never seen an ocean let alone a kiddy pool . . . .

 

[Stephen Marsh]

All . . . Stephen is right you can control the color without having a rip and all the goodies . . what you can't do is get a lot of "self described color experts" to admit they don't know it all and don't have all the answers. Like I have said before in many posts . .. the worst customers I have had are graduates from Art Academy type of schools because they are graddiates of that fancy school and have learned how to swim from a book . . . . but have never seen an ocean let alone a kiddy pool . . . .

Agreed, one could try to lead the colour consultant to reach the correct answer that they should know in the first place if they know their game, however they may not know enough to be led to the correct answer in the first place. This sounds like the situation described in the OP.

Anyhow IMO, clients should not be supplying proofs to a commercial/general CMYK print shop and such print shops should not be wasting their time trying to “match” supplied proofs. Such a printer can provide the client with profiles and advice on making their internal proofs “closely” align to the print shop, however this will not mean that the print shop accepts client proofs as replacements to their own proofs.


Stephen Marsh

 

[dabob]

Agreed, one could try to lead the colour consultant to reach the correct answer that they should know in the first place if they know their game, however they may not know enough to be led to the correct answer in the first place. This sounds like the situation described in the OP.

Anyhow IMO, clients should not be supplying proofs to a commercial/general CMYK print shop and such print shops should not be wasting their time trying to “match” supplied proofs. Such a printer can provide the client with profiles and advice on making their internal proofs “closely” align to the print shop, however this will not mean that the print shop accepts client proofs as replacements to their own proofs.


Stephen Marsh

Steven . .. I agree with you 100% but apparently my sarcastic response didn't get through . . . I don't think you could lead this guy to water - let alone make him drink . . . . .

When a customer walks into our shop with a glossy photo print from any printer we just smile and tell him to go buy a bunch of that paper and a lot of ink cuz we can't match it . . . .

 

[Johu]

IMHO the fact based way to tell the customer what is going on is to have them supply you a proof with (let say) Fogra wedge. Measure that and show them where they stand against the current standards. As pointed out by Stephen even is two wedges look pretty alike the other might be within the standard and the other not, but if your clients proofs are way of then for sure they are way of compared to the standards.