Precise color matching can require an extensive setup process
and quite a few test print runs for some artists. This will
occur usually if levels of color in a file need to be adjusted.
The nature of this sort of quick ordering and digital printing
online does now allow for all of the processing that images
need to go through if you want a guarantee on specific color
matching. This type of service can be an investment that ranges
from $500 USD to $5000 USD per image on average through some
of our competitors. The artist will usually be on hand as well
and take an active role in the process. It is not unknown for
some artists or publishers to invest weeks at a time and as
high as $20,000 per work of art before starting to take their
work to print. Usually this kind of pricing is not worth the
cost unless an artist or photographer has a large market for
their prints. Fortunately, because we offer printing at a "starving
artist" budget artists and photographers are free to run
test runs themselves at their pace and make any adjustments
(if any are required) at their leisure.
Why do some artists or publishers spend this kind of money
(and time) before even starting print production? A wide range
of factors that can influence this; with the biggest one being
color and media. In the digital printing industry monitor settings,
video card, color profiles, media type, etc, prevent any guarantees
on specific color matching unless some very involved work is
performed before hand.
Below is some of the most common color issues artists or photographers
experience with printers:
Flesh tones too red
Flesh tones too green
Black and white prints either greenish/bluish
Sepia is too yellow
Sepia is too orange
Sepia is too muted of color
Lower contrast is print versus digital image
Lack of color in image (de saturated)
Colors are overly saturated
Color conversion changes color levels
The media type itself also plays a big factor. All the research
and test runs can go out the window if an artist decides to
change to a different substrate. This is because of the brightness
levels and texture of the substrate can have a huge effect
on how images output to print.
There are many resources online that provide information on
how to correct for these potential pitfalls artists and photographers
experience with print and photo labs. FinerWorks.com is no
different in the respect that on occasion, our customers too
run into these issues.
