OT: Printing on paper and with Primera BravoPro

I'm looking for advice here on how to easily match colors between the paper (DVD case insert printed on Epson printer), and disc (T-Y WaterShield printed on Primera BravoPro).

I think the problem word there is "easily"!!!

The paper version looks great, but the disc version is usually off a bit, and I know it's a difference in ink and surface...but I need my stuff to match relatively close.

I'm wondering if there's a relatively consistent method that any of you have used to tweak the graphic to account for the difference on the Primera...desaturate a little bit...add more brightness...add more magenta...etc.

Thanks!

Casey Petersen
www.unitedvideoinc.com

What a strange question! Not a printing guy, so I'm gonna give it a shot anyway!

Different material and type of ink will result in a different result unless you find a way to calibrate them. Same goes for video. Print out a color chart on both of them, then scan both back into photoshop and apply a color correction on one of them to compensate for the difference, then apply that same color correction and print. Alternatively, you can also create LUTs, but you gotta check with a guy who's a lot more well versed with the film process.

Also, you may want to ditch the color chart idea, as inks are unlikely to maintain the same consistency across the entire color chart and still work optimally with your picture. Just color balancing with you picture should work fine.

Hope that helps. Anyone else?



www.strypesinpost.com

What Gerard said.

Also, the first thing 'd experiment with would be saturation on the coated disc.

Coated discs are generally a better solution that paper stickons, which add not only weight which cheap players can't handle well, but also introduce balance issues and adhesive danger.

Paper labeling is on the way out, IMHO.

- Loren
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Be sure your printer driver is set to "CD printing" (or similar) as "paper type" under print settings. Fine quality ink-jet printers get their fine quality by carefully matching to paper characteristics, and you can get wildly different results by having your print settings not exactly match the paper type. To further complicate it, there is probably much variation among different brands of printable CD/DVDs as far as how they respond to ink. My experience, with my printer and the DVDs I use, is that colors are a bit dull compared to paper, and increasing saturation only pushes the colors further off.

Scott