Understanding Print Color Quality

Difference between Print and Electronic

The colors you see in ad proofs on a computer screen might look a little different compared to the printed advertisement because a computer screen is backlit, which can make colors appear brighter than they do in a print magazine. 

Here are some photography tips that may help your photographer understand the colors vs overall ink-limit required to help with printing

• Follow standard specs and save everything as CMYK
• Images that are submitted as RGB are converted to CMYK for print.
• Set the overall ink limit at 240%.
• Highlights should be: 10c, 5m, 5y, and no more than 3k.
• Midtones should be around 50c, 40m, 40y—adjust on this scale if needed.
• Shadows should be: 85c, 75m, 75y, and 10-20k—adjust if more black and less detail are needed.
• Here’s a useful link for skin tone colors: Skin Tone Color Palette.
• SWOP standards for dot gain on a 60# gloss text sheets range from 7 to 20%.
• Everything we run is to pleasing color standards, like green grass, blue skies, red apples, and yellow bananas.

City Lifestyle prints using the general profiles of: 

• CMYK: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
• RGB: sRGB IEC61966-2.1