Enjoying both yours and mark articles :D

Thanks for the article. I’m a web designer who occasionally himself in the deep waters of print design. One issue that is most frustrating to me is color; both in terms of color spaces (RGB, CMYK, etc.) and color matching (spot color and Pantone).

It’s also sometimes hard to manage client education and expectation in this regard. My clients just want their logo color to look consistent between their letterhead (printed offset) and their datasheets (printed on an in-office laserjet) and I sometimes don’t know what to tell them.

Any tips on color would be lovely.

Now, anything that’s an Oce Lightjet, although not optimally suited for large runs, will have a serious impressive output compared to much of the print technology with none of the issues you’ve listed—that is a printer similar to a photography development device.

Hi-Fi printers, which run of Cyan Magenta Yellow Black Light Cyan Light Magenta Orange Green, can produce a significant amount of color improvements over the standard issue digital machine.

It should also be pointed out that Pigment and Dye printers typically lack the banding you describe (although to achieve outdoor quality you need to use certified outdoor material, and typically they have a short life span). Solvent printers are usually the banding disaster, but I only find those in machines similar to Scitex large formats—Roland’s Eco Solvet machines output beautifully.

Now, for large runs using something like an Inca flatbed can be significantly cheaper than offset, considering the setup is so minimal and output is comparable to much of digital—but the color quality can and typically is just as high as much of the offset or large format screen print options out there.

I’ve ran alot of printers before I became an creative director—I know this is a gray area for most print designers, but digital is not that weak… most of the problem here is that ‘color science’ and callibration is still an art where very few of us can claim a mastering of—and that’s typically the shift in color where people notice. 

Side Notation: a great feature for InDesign is it’s integration of XML—case example for one of our sites academystudios.com, their data is all XML (articles and the like) which they can dynamically link to their brochure/catalog in indesign, and it will update in real time. Another blessing of the print/web mix:)

My advice for the entrepreneur web developer is to contact a local print house (the bigger the better) and ask if they have any office space for rent or if they can make room for you. You will have the benefit of learning a great deal of things and they get “in house” web expertise as well as rent money of course. I also get a lot of work through these guys and they get some through me so that’s an added bonus.