Overlooked a color space setting and my last 200 prints came out muddy

I'm a digital painter and I've been exporting my files for prints the same way for about three years. Last month a client sent back a physical proof and asked why the skin tones looked so dull - that's when I realized I'd been working in sRGB but my print shop uses Adobe RGB. Has anyone else had a color mismatch surprise like that, or do you have a standard workflow for matching your monitor to print output?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan_hill6021d ago

And building on that, I'd actually suggest grabbing a hardware calibrator if you don't already have one. In my experience, even the best eye can't match what a device like a Spyder or i1 will do for keeping your monitor consistent with your print output.

keithharris21d ago

Hesitant to disagree with @nathan_hill60 because I know he's been at this a long time, but I gotta ask: how often do you actually see a real difference between a fresh calibration and just letting your monitor age a bit and trusting your own prints for reference? I've got a Spyder 5 that I haul out maybe twice a year and honestly, half the time I can't tell if it's helping or if I'm just chasing numbers. My workflow is mostly printing black and white, so maybe that's the catch. Does your experience swing that hard toward needing a recalibration every month or just for color critical work?