Which is the best white point setting to use for print work?

[Gregg]

I am working to get all of our designers following more of a color-managed workflow and want to start by calibrating their monitors and repeating on a every 4 week basis. The design team are all on iMacs and I am using XRite's i1Profiler to do the calibrating.

What I am having a hard time with is choosing the proper white point. I know D50 has always been tried and true for print work and matching the color viewing booths, but it is so warm that pure white looks as if it is 5% yellow. I have been reading the D65 is "the new D50" and that using D65 is now highly recommended for both print and online use. I find D65 to be very cool, way more blue than I would like. D55 seems to be a good compromise.

Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gianni_S]

Hi,
Quato, Eizo and the old Barco suggested something between D50 and D65.
Personally I set everything on D58, it seems a good compromise among both ways.

 

[ruffsclive]

For printing, I prefer the ambient light and the monitor white point both set to 5000K, but the gamma still set to 2.2

 

[curiosity]

My view booth measures 5000K +/- 10 or so. However, to match paper whites onscreen, my display is calibrated to 6200K and I've adjusted contrast to help too. I use a TRV-1 booth from GTI and an NEC PA272 display.

Although there are standards, I'd bet very few adopt same settings.

For color predictability between monitor and press, I've always focused on the following:
1. match white paper to white in display
2. match shadow detail in display to print's shadows
3. match overall gamma between the two
4. after monitor calibration, most colors should be pretty darn close

And know this is NOT exact and will shift somewhat over time. Even paper whites shift from lot to lot.
Calibrate regularly.
Change bulbs consistently.
Continuously compare printed pieces to display.

Finally, since there are so many "moving" parts, by doing the aforementioned, hopefully you will get a "feel" for similarities and differences among displays, prints and lighting conditions and your ability to predict color will be enhanced.

 

[SimonJester753]

We get art files in from dozens of people. I'm sure none of them are using the same settings for color managment. Is there a procedure you put files through to get them in line with your preferences? If so, does it change the file significantly so that it no longer looks like what your client saw on screen?

 

[Malcolm Mackenzie]

Hi Gregg
It's a bigger question than choosing just a white point.
Questions
Do you compare print to screen?
Do you have a dimmable lightbox thats ISO 3664 certified?
Do you certify the monitor calibrations to ISO 12646?
and these are just the beginning.
The PDF from Fogra will give you more help.
https://www.fogra.org/en/downloads-for-softproof.html
Malcolm

 

[Malcolm Mackenzie]

Simon, better to start a new thread.