I’m new to this forum and eager to learn graphic design. I’m a beginner in this field, but I have some basic experience with Photoshop.
I’ve taken on a new project where I need to replicate an existing printed design and print it, matching the colors as closely as possible to the original. During this “copying” process, I’ve run into a couple of problems I need help with.
My biggest issue is that I can’t seem to get the right shade of color. I’ve searched online but couldn’t find a clear answer… Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I need to learn more about color theory, specifically color mixing.
I’ve realized that what I see on my screen doesn’t match the final printed result. I understand that I probably need to set up an ICC profile and calibrate my monitor, but I’m not sure how to do it correctly. Are there any straightforward methods to achieve this, or is there another approach that could help me solve this color mismatch?
For context, I’m using a standard Epson printer with CMYK inks.
Thanks in advance for your attention—I really appreciate any advice you can offer!
It’s not super easy to understand, but it’s definitely worth learning. Once you understand it, you can master anything color-related with more confidence.
There are some good introduction videos on youtube to what color management is. Just take care that it somehow fits what you are doing. Sometimes they are video related.
Furthermore there are printing processes that use materials, colors or methods not replicable by your printer. (One time the Heidelberg operator and me had to mix a spot color with specific pigment properties to mach a particular color. The Pantone system wasn’t sufficient.)
The light from your monitor is shining directly into your eyes. The light from a physical object is bouncing off that object into your eyes, which makes a huge difference. For example, the colored light shining into your eyes from the monitor is additive; the light bouncing off an object is subtractive.
The color space of each is fundamentally different. For example, in an additive color space, when you combine the primary colors of red, green, and blue, you get white. In a subtractive color space, combining the primary colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow produces black.
The physics behind these two color spaces differ; it’s not just a matter of adjusting your monitor. With experience, you get used to it and make the necessary mental adjustments to make a reasonable approximation that will never have a one-to-one correspondence.
In addition, the gamut in an additive color space is larger than that of a subtractive color space. In other words, there are many more possible colors in an additive color space than in a subtractive color space. You will see colors on your computer monitor that aren’t possible to produce in our everyday subtractive space world.
Photoshop has a setting that lets you work in a simulated subtractive space, reducing the additive gamut of your monitor to better match a subtractive space.
Some others disagree, but I buy a good monitor, then never bother to calibrate it for reasons that would lead to a long tangent. Instead, as I mentioned, experience enables me to, more or less, bridge the gaps and make the mental adjustments necessary to partially compensate for the differences between additive and subtractive color spaces.
I’ve used a bunch of jargon in my response, but look it up. It’ll be your first lesson in color theory, which will lead to other concepts that you can also explore. There is no comprehensive, quick video shortcut. Color theory usually forms a big part of a full year of university design courses. Get ready to study. Possibly ask an LLM AI (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) to get started, then go from there. Better still, is four years of college, but that’s another subject.
I understand that your response is more from a “scientific” perspective. I’m also asking AI in parallel to study this profession as deeply as I can.
I realize there isn’t a single video or guide that would answer and solve all my questions, but despite that, do you have any you could recommend for getting started that might help with my situation?
— First thing and it is asking an AI to study Graphic Design which they will give you all the wrong information about Graphic Design.
— Second thing, where to study Graphic Design ? There are many ways and what I did is to study with online courses for many years and is this result (well I am still making my Graphic Design better) ? Yes, but what it is most important is to practice your skills and follow all the principles of Graphic Design. There are so many subjects, details and styles, and you can all of them in a College or University. You will not learn from a video, Graphic Design needs practice and also to take a look of your details and this can be done not only watching videos. The perfect tool ? There are so many tools but the most significant are the adobe tools.
I provided a comprehensive answer to your questions. Unfortunately, it’s unavoidably a bit technical. I know of no video of someone looking into the camera and saying the same thing, since I’ve never looked for one.
The only thing I didn’t mention was your Epson printer. The accuracy of a desktop printer is never perfect (or even close to perfect). Even a high-end print from a high-end digital printer will look different in the sunshine than it does indoors under different lighting conditions.
The bottom line is that what you want isn’t practical without knowing the precise CMYK color values of the original and then having the best possible printer to output those CMYK colors in a way that matches the inaccuracies in the printing of whatever it is you’re looking at.
When designers need close-as-possible matches, they typically use Pantone colors, which aren’t possible in your situation.
I asked Claude to simply my original answer while removing the technical stuff. Here’s Claude’s response, which might help explain the problem in more familiar terms and metaphors.
Hey, here’s what’s happening with your colors:
Think of your monitor and printer as speaking two different languages. Your monitor makes colors by mixing light (like mixing colored flashlight beams), while the printer makes colors by mixing ink on paper (like mixing paint).
When you look at that brochure, you’re seeing ink on paper. When you try to recreate it on your screen, your monitor is using light to approximate what ink would look like. It’s doing its best translation, but it’s never going to be exact because light and ink just work differently.
Then, when you print it from your home printer, you’re adding another layer of “telephone game.” Your printer is trying to match what the monitor showed, but it has different inks than the professional printer that made the original brochure, and it lays them down differently too.
The bottom line: Without knowing the exact “recipe” the original designer used (which you don’t have), you’re essentially trying to recreate a dish by looking at a photo of it. You can get close, but you can’t get it exact.
What you can do: Get as close as possible by eye, accept it won’t be perfect, or ask whoever made the original brochure for their color specifications so you can match them properly.
Well about colours, there are much CMYK is for Printing and RGB is for Monitors (Computer Monitors) but there are other colours that is a big list which is Pantone and each colour has it own meaning and psychology.
That’s a blanket statement that can be untrue. RGB can be used for printing and in large format, with our wider-gamut inksets, RGB for imagery is often preferred. But only if originally saved in RGB. Once you convert to CMYK, the color information is irretrievably removed once saved. You can’t go from CMYK to RGB and get your color back.
As for Photoshop being the wrong tool…it is not layout software. But where this is only one page, I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore though. You send it, I’ll print it.
OK. I’m going to assume you know very little about this stuff, which is fine. I know very little about many subjects.
CMYK refers to the inks/toner used to print full colors. Printers blend those inks on the press to create other colors. For example, print a shade (a tint) of cyan over a shade of yellow, and you get a shade of green.
CMYK printing can’t print every color, but it can print most (its gamut). Other printing technologies that use additional colors and inks can print more colors. Your Epsom printer uses CMYK ink or toner. If it’s more than a basic model, it might have an additional blue color to augment the CMYK inks, expanding the gamut of colors the printer can produce.
I also want to mention RGB, which are the colors your computer monitor uses in combination to produce a wide range of colors. The color gamut of RGB is considerably larger than CMYK, so it’s easy to create bright, saturated colors on your computer that can’t be recreated in CMYK. This is why I suggested switching to CMYK mode in your Adobe program to approximate what’s possible in CMYK printing.
Let me address PrintDriver’s comment about sending RGB to a printer. When using a high-end digital printer that includes both CMYK and additional inks, often referred to as CMYK+, the software in the printing machines converts (separates) the RGB into the best possible mixture of CMYK+ inks.
This increases the color gamut of printed images, resulting in more accurate color reproduction, for example, in photographs where a vibrant blue or green is needed instead of the more muted colors of standard CMYK.
