My monitor lied about the print colors for a batch of mugs

I ordered custom mugs and the blues came out purple (what a letdown). Turns out, I was using the wrong color profile in my design software. What's your go-to fix for color accuracy in digital art?

2 comments

2 Comments

janaf9114d ago

I've been there, with a design that looked perfect on screen but printed in a totally wrong shade (my "forest green" banner came out looking like pond scum, which was hilarious later). Now I always set my software to the sRGB color profile for anything going online, and for print, I switch to Adobe RGB after checking with my local print shop. Calibrating my monitor with a cheap colorimeter made a huge difference, even though I put it off for ages. Soft proofing in Photoshop helps catch those weird shifts before sending files out.

hollym1214d agoMost Upvoted

Sometimes it feels like no matter how much you calibrate, printers have their own secret color language. I read that some commercial printers use CMYK profiles that don't match Adobe RGB perfectly, which explains a lot. Isn't it maddening when you do everything right and it still comes out weird?