# Question about printing and colors



## Katia (3 mo ago)

Hello 😊 
can any of proffesionals here please tell me why colors differ between original painting and print?
I've always painted/drew only for myself digitally, traditionally as a hobby. Now I decided to put my works for sell, and printed out one picture on canvas. Quality is good but colors are completely off (like washed out) is it normal or did I do something wrong?
I am afraid if someone buys my pictures they will be complaining about that.

First time posting. I am no proffesional so I am sorry if it's a noob question 🙈
And sorry for my english 😅


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## iandandavies (9 mo ago)

If you are having the prints done by a printers the should match the colours to the original. If you are doing it then your will have to adjust the software settigs and or printer settings to do the matching yourself. Hovever, if you are selling prints you would be better using the services of a printing company as they use special museum grade inks and paper that resist fading and yellowing for generations. Their printers will also be far superior than anything that the home user would have. Printing to much higher resolution and can also print larger prints.


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## Katia (3 mo ago)

Thank you for answer. Yes, I was using proffesional company for printing on canvas so that's why I am asking if I maybe did something wrong with picture, maybe I used colors that are not printable? 
Also I was thinking maybe printing on paper would be more real to colors than on canvas? 
My image was btw .jpg A3 size of 350dpi (originally 600dpi 😅)


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## iandandavies (9 mo ago)

Speak to thenprinter and as why the colours are not matched to the original


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## Janique (6 mo ago)

You have to switch the picture to cymk, then edit it in tone correction, saturation, and color balance


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## vectorian (Sep 8, 2020)

Katia said:


> Hello 😊
> can any of proffesionals here please tell me why colors differ between original painting and print?
> I've always painted/drew only for myself digitally, traditionally as a hobby. Now I decided to put my works for sell, and printed out one picture on canvas. Quality is good but colors are completely off (like washed out) is it normal or did I do something wrong?
> I am afraid if someone buys my pictures they will be complaining about that.
> ...



I am also not a professional but maybe I can contribute
something to the understanding.

A monitor (graphics program) usually uses the colors
Red, Green, Blue (RGB) to display all colors.
Red, Green, Blue each on 100% will result in the color white.
This color system is called "additive" because light (colors)
are added.

Colors in Printing are created by a subtractive color system.
Colors that printed on top of each other absorb the light.
The color tones are defined here by the basic colors
Cyan, Magenta, Yello, Black (CMYK).

Due to this oppositeness, colors that are displayed
on the monitor in RGB can be outside the color range
(color space) of CMYK. E.g. a color saturation that
is not possible with CMYK. The colors not included
in the color space are then replaced by similar
or even by other colors when in print.

It may help to make a small change to the color saturation
or color brightness and Converting / Export the image to CMYK
color space before printing. Most painting programs offer this.

Would also recommend that you maybe watch a few youtube videos on this topic.


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## iandandavies (9 mo ago)

vectorian said:


> It may help to make a small change to the color saturation
> or color brightness and Converting / Export the image to CMYK
> color space before printing. Most painting programs offer this.


She had them done at a professional printers. They should do any necessary corrections


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## vectorian (Sep 8, 2020)

iandandavies said:


> She had them done at a professional printers. They should do any necessary corrections



Thats correct.
The question is whether the printer knew his business.
They could have at least informed her customer in advance.

Apart from that, she was interested in how these color changes
could occur. And it wouldn't hurt to have some information on
how to correct it yourself.


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## Katia (3 mo ago)

Janique said:


> You have to switch the picture to cymk, then edit it in tone correction, saturation, and color balance


Ah I didn't know that, I don't even know how. Can try to look it up for next time. 
I thought that this company would do this kind of correction for me 😅 but I asked them anyway, so we will se what they answer


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## Katia (3 mo ago)

Thank you. Yes! I found how to convert it in my painting software but now I am interested if I save it as .jpg, will it keep the CMYK colors? Because if I save it as .tif file - first it`s too big in size and second it shows me that quality dropped down - I used pictorem.com to check picture quality, if I can trust this site


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## UndatedRecords (Oct 28, 2021)

Some of this information is partial or outdated. Yes, in the old days everything was CMYK and an RGB would look terrible. However, modern day high-end art printers can handle RGB just fine. They use 10+ colors and so can reproduce colors that CMYK cannot. Especially greens and blues, but these printers even have different shades of gray as standard colors. So I’d say find an art printer who can go beyond CMYK. These are the people I use. https://www.hansondigital.com/services/giclee-printing/pigment-prints-on-paper


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## Katia (3 mo ago)

UndatedRecords said:


> Some of this information is partial or outdated. Yes, in the old days everything was CMYK and an RGB would look terrible. However, modern day high-end art printers can handle RGB just fine. They use 10+ colors and so can reproduce colors that CMYK cannot. Especially greens and blues, but these printers even have different shades of gray as standard colors. So I’d say find an art printer who can go beyond CMYK. These are the people I use. Hanson Digital ::: San Francisco Fine Art Museum Quality Prints and Archival Giclee Printing


Oh really? So is possible that the company I used for printing have old printers? It wasn't really cheap to print it.. I didn't get any answer from them yet..


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## UndatedRecords (Oct 28, 2021)

Yes, it’s quite possible. Your printer might have capabilities that I don’t know about, but my printer is capable of printing on paper, canvas, or metal.


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## Janique (6 mo ago)

Katia said:


> Thank you. Yes! I found how to convert it in my painting software but now I am interested if I save it as .jpg, will it keep the CMYK colors? Because if I save it as .tif file - first it`s too big in size and second it shows me that quality dropped down - I used pictorem.com to check picture quality, if I can trust this site


I do pdfs for printing, so I'm not sure. sorry I haven't been on the forum for a bit. But I would think it should. I use clipstudio, which previews it for me so I can see how it looks like after converting it.


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## Mangustos (2 mo ago)

There are a few reasons why colors might differ between an original painting and a print. One possibility is that the paint you used is not lightfast, meaning that it will fade over time when exposed to light. Another option is that the paper you printed on is not archival quality, meaning that it will turn yellow and degrade over time. Finally, it is also possible that the inks you used to print your painting are not of good quality, meaning that they will fade over time as well. If you are concerned that your prints will not last over time, you may want to invest in a good quality printer and archival quality paper and ink. Also another alternative way is lino printing, which I have used for years. You can find all the detail about it. Good luck!


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## tatiana667 (1 mo ago)

vectorian said:


> I am also not a professional but maybe I can contribute
> something to the understanding.
> 
> A monitor (graphics program) usually uses the colors
> ...


 wanted to type that  that covers it


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