Thank you John & Greg!

If the artwork looks blue on the screen, and they want violet, was given the wrong color to begin with?

Josh,

I must admit I do not know how to calibrate my monitor.

Linda,

Even though most sublimators don't offer/guarantee PMS color matches, it's worth buying a Pantone Matching System (PMS) book.

That way, even though your monitor may not be calibrated, you'll be able to see the actual color they're specifying, which gives you a running chance at coming as close as possible.

Assuming the color they're requesting is purple, as opposed to blue, if you add magenta to the image (percentages depend on what shade you're trying to achieve) the color will turn purple.

Conversely, if you have a purple image (or spot color) that needs to be blue, you decrease the amount of magenta in the image.

If you use Photoshop, monitors can be (decently) calibrated with the program's built-in "Adobe Gamma."

Monitor calibration is a necessity in sublimation. There is an attachment called the Spyder, (I think that is the correct spelling), that goes on the screen and has a program that will do the calibration.

I do sublimate to PMS colors. The original Power Driver came with an RGB booklet that gave the values to use for the PMS colors and was amazingly accurate.

Do mot use the CMYK values that Corel gives for the PMS colors. They will only work if you have RIP software and the RIP module in the printer to get the right colors, otherwise they are usually far off.

You will need to get the RGB values suggested by the customer, if they even have them, unlikely. I have only found a few that do.

Very dark and very light purples seem to be the absolute worst to match with sublimation. Aren't I the bearer of good news?

I have the PMS swatch book, it runs between $75 and $100. If you need to match a PMS color it is the only way to be sure. Be sure to compare colors under fluorescent lights, they look way different under incandescent lights and a little different in sunlight. (More good news.)

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Hi Greg,

We PMS match with dye sub as well as other digital products on a regular basis. We use a RIP that allows us to adjust the color independantly in spot color areas. Granted the gammut of the inks doen't always allow the color to be spot on, but you would be surprised how closely we are on 99% of our work.

thank you everyone... so now my questions are:

If I don't use Photoshop, can I calibrate my monitor with CorelDraw? Or where can I find Spyder?

And what is RIP software and where I find that?

The Spyder is from ColorVision:

http://www.colorvision.com/profis/profis_search.jsp?op=search&department_id=401

While the "ColorPlus" is slightly cheaper, the "Spyder2" is better quality. And the Suite version will calibrate not only monitors but also many printers.

RIP software is normaly used for large format inkjet printers. You don't need to use it to do what we are talking about.

Essentially you will need to be able to select a color and change it's value in a CMYK value.

You could easily create a square fill it with values that they suggest to reach a PMS value and tweak from there as David suggested.

How you go through this process depends on what software you use.

It can be time consuming, but it is possible. Your first goal as stated already is to get yourself a PMS color chart. Without this you can't do any color matching at all.

Beyond that, you will need to know how to set CMYK values for spot colors in whatever software that you use. A calibrated monitor would be great, but isn't essential since you are going to be tweaking the color 9 times out of ten anyway.

So

1. Get yourself a PMS Chart
2. Learn where you can set CMYK values for a color field in your prefered software.
Set a value that it shows on a PMS chart for the color that you are trying to match. Print it, press it, and check it against the chart....Adjust accordingly using the color theory info suggested below.

I would strongly suggest that you look into the following info on CMYK color theory. This will help you make adjustments more accurately than just by guessing.

You can find that information here...

http://www.byronc.com/art_color.shtml

Take a look at the CMYK color model portion for what subtractive CMYK colors combine to make new colors (Illustration 8. in the link).

This should help get you headed in the right direction.

I'm a newbie here with my share of color matching problems and I agree with those who recommend acquiring a pms chart but in the meantime here is a link to an online chart which may prove helpful.

http://www.printingassoc.com/pmscolor.html

Mike

I agree Harvey,

I have checked that site against the actual charts and it is off substantially in some areas. The only thing that that site is really good for is if perfection isn't important. You may be looking at a similar color on each end....or you may not depending on monitor calibration.

The whole idea of the PMS system is to have the same color on each end of the communication.

Anything viewed through a monitor on both ends would introduce quite a bit of schew against the real PMS color that you would see on a chart.

It would be one way to communicate when there are no other means, but far from foolproof, and quite a gamble if you ask me.....