Color Proofing

Inkjet proof printed on paper from Epson 3000 - Screen printed shirt detail

Working only in RGB color space has the added advantage of truer, brighter color without the constraints of the very limited color gamut of CMYK. Your colors will more closely resemble the original artwork.

Reds will pop and blues are extremely intense because real spot color inks are used for each color.

Instead of printing an image with 4 process colors and 3 bump plates the whole image is printed in bump plates.

The files are also smaller and easier to manipulate. Screenprint Separator files are typically 7 to 15 megabytes, which means that you don't have to have the latest fastest computer on the planet.

The spot colors are all matched with regular opaque plastisols making printing on dark colored shirts much easier.

Using the custom color swatches or Pantone colors each spot color can be matched

and mixed to a specified Pantone formula using the many mix and match systems available from the major ink manufacturers.

This makes for reliable repeatability which is critical to maintaining happy customers.

The correct Pantone color can be determined by Photoshop's built in numbers, or by holding a Pantone color swatch to the colors on the color bar printed out of Illustrator, or if you prefer you can mix each color by eye.

Regular plastisol inks or water based inks work well with this system.

Using the a color ink jet printer to print a proof and a set of color bars, the ink is easily matched for each job.

When you make a new set of ink for each individual design, chances are that the final print will be very accurate.

Forcing an image into a set of custom ink colors that were never present in the original image may be convenient because you don't have to mix ink, however your prints will suffer.

Because the proofs are printed directly from the separations the proof matches the final print so well that when you lay an ink jet proof on the final printed shirt, it is hard to tell the proof from the from the print.

We stock special large format proofing paper specially designed to work with the SPS color bars.

We recommend the Epson Stylus line of ink jet printers because they have the highest color range and boast 1440 x 720 dpi resolution. They are also capable of printing squaredot separations at near image setter quality using special coated clear film. Imagine creating your film positives on the same device that the color negotiation proof was created on , talk about accuracy!

The Epson 3000 is capable of printing postscript files unto 22x17 inches! Contact us by e-mail if you wish to know more about using an ink jet to create film positives. We have information on special Postscript software , inks and film for laser and ink jet printers.

click on this logo to learn more about ink jet paper for color proofs.

Each spot color is fully adjustable in Adobe Illustrator giving you absolute control over the colors in your proof.

If a red is too dark simply click on it's swatch and the sliders will appear allowing adjustments in RGB, CMYK or HSB mode.

Once the inks are mixed they can be checked for accuracy by smearing each one directly on it's corresponding color chip.

Then all you have to do is follow the specific print order for that particular design and success is assured.

When you present this proof to your client, you are showing them an exact copy of what will be printed .

The Macintosh version even tells you how much ink to mix for each color.

Ink calculators have been available for years from the various manufacturers, however until now they were not of much use because they required the exact amount of open area for each color to be accurate.

SPS makes this accuracy possible by counting up the exact number of square dots in each color and calculating the percentage of each. Now you can save thousands of dollars a year by mixing only the ink you need

and avoiding the costly problem of running out of ink during the run.