Visualization
About built-in and 3rd party, classic and real-time rendering solutions, settings, workflows, etc.

Printed colors vs. the colors I see on the monitor.

Does anyone have some tips on how to get the color on the monitor to match the colors the printer will make? I don't have the ability to calibrate my computer with the plotter at the printers. Is there a better way than assigning numbers to some colors and have them printed, then select the colors by number? I want to see the same color on my screen as on the final prints. I am using the RAL Color system and the default colors in ArchiCAD. Do CMYK separations help?

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

2 REPLIES 2
Anonymous
Not applicable
I want to see the same color on my screen as on the final prints.

HEH everybody want

me too
Anonymous
Not applicable
There is no simple solution to this. Monitors and printers have widely different gamuts (color ranges) and the differences in color spaces (CMY, CMYK, RGB etc.), inks, papers and display technologies make precise matching essentially impossible. There is no way that red, green, and blue dots on a backlit transparent panel can be matched by cyan, yellow, magenta and black dots of ink an an opaque reflective surface.

The best approach I can recommend is like choosing the prismacolors you like to use in your hand renderings. Find colors you like, run test prints on all the printers you expect to use (remember to find and stick with one or two papers that you like) and adjust the colors as necessary to come up with the best compromise you can. This pursuit can occupy a tremendous amount of time so get it to where it's acceptable and go with it.