Managing Color from Design to Print

Managing color on printing projects has long been a difficult task. Prior to the digital age press proofing was probably the best way to not necessarily ensure that the colors from your project were correct, according to your original design, but that the colors being produced on press were at least acceptable to your project's goals. Now with the digital age firmly implanted within every project, designers are facing problems from a multitude of sources related to color management.

Communicating accurate color with PC monitors is a nightmare. Even with proper calibration sharing these files requires that everyone along the chain agrees on calibration. Proofing today can also be a haphazard event depending on various toners, equipment and substrates used for proofing. At the end of the day you only want to understand what color will appear after the press run.

Pantone or PMS colors offer one solution. Only about 42% of Pantone colors can be reproduced with CMYK. Pantone does offer a variety of tools for color management. However, I think the problem can only be addressed by a variety of methods, each addressing specific issues. Taking control of color management is an important role of every designer.