Blue Color Printing Out As Black

[zot]

I know I've seen this answered somewhere recently but I can't find where it was. I am trying a repaint. I have added some noseart that has a dark blue circle for the background. On the screen, it definately looks blue. When printed however, it prints as black. i've lightened the color a little, but it hasn't helped. The color should be roughly somewhere between insignia blue and non-specular sea blue. Any suggestions?

[cgutzmer]

email me a copy of this and i will try to print it that will rule out your printer
cgutzmer at gmail period com

[zot]

Chris,
It's on the way.

[cgutzmer]

I printed it on two different printers, one injet and one laser. Its defintely a blue as it doesnt match up with the black text I printed as well. However its A LOT darker than it shows on the computer like described.... I dont have an answer but will research a bit.
Chris

[zot]

Well, at least it's on the right track. How would you rate the quality of the part? Did the color change make the pannel lines too jagged?

[cgutzmer]

Yeah - I would say the edges are too jagged. Need to go vector based I think...
Chris

[elliott]

Try getting in touch with Airdave on the forum here. He might have some useful input.

[airdave]

not sure I understand completely, but...

first thing to remember is what you see on your screen is entirely different to what will be printed.
we always rely on test prints to match and check colours.

if you want to match a colour, you do it by code.

when repainting the Red Bull sea Vixen, i went and got the correct colour code for the dark blue. (Red Bull has actually tried to copyright the code, trying to stop anyone else from using that colour! lol)...there are a number of colour charts, each with their own codes...once I have a code, then I get the RGB ratio (or CMYK mix) and this is how I apply a colour. It doesn't matter what I see on the screen, as long as I use the code.

but theres still no guaranty of each printer producing exactly the same colour!
Different inks, ink pressures, dirty print heads, different papers and absorbancy of print stock, etc etc


It almost sounds to me, like you have used a very dark colour, that just appears to be a brighter blue on your screen setup...but when you print it, you get a more realistic look!

(you need to...print out some standard colour blocks* and then hold the printed results up to your monitor. Now try to adjust the colour balance and tone of your monitor to match the print output...this might help you in the future with your model printing)

*I can give you some RGB codes to use in your favorite imaging program if you want.

vector based artwork is necessary for enlarging images and artwork.
...small files can be enlarged to any size with no quality loss when vectored.
unfortunately you can not use and apply bitmap textures or photorealistic images as vectors. Thiose elements will be restricted by original pixel resolution.

for smaller models (say 1/33 or less scale) print size is small enough not to worry too much about line resolution. Its when you get into bigger models or start enlarging the models, that you will experience "pixelation" and get jagged lines, etc.

[airdave]

There are many colour charts you can use...here is one.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/2397/

Maybe you can use a chart like this, to establish the codes of certain colours you want to use and then enter them into your paint program instead of picking from colour charts.

On each colour chip is a set of numbers/letters.
the number at the top is an HTML code.
Thats a web related colour code.

(This particular chart only applies to colours that are "web safe".)

The rest of the numbers on each chip
are the RGB numbers.
Thats the ratio of process colours Red, Green and Blue that make up that colour.

(CMYK is a more advanced printing colour process)
Use RGB whenever you can for stronger more vibrant colours
and less chance of variations between formats.

[elliott]

I don't know if this information satisfies Zot or not but it's precisely the type of information I was thinking of when I suggested contacting you Dave. It sure helps me to see it in print. Thanks, man!