How can one accurately reproduce color from an already printed (hard copy) color block?

Question

Thanks in advance! Really trying to find the answer to this one... have an already printed color available in a document. And now, need to reproduce it on a (wide format) printer.

What should be the best workflow to have this accomplished? For instance, should the document be scanned, made available on the monitor and then printed on the printer, all within the realm of using color management, say with a tool like Colormunki? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/798928-REG/X_Rite_CMUNDIS_ColorMunki_Display.html .

Any other ideas or tips? Thanks again!

Answer 1

You can simply use a Pantone swatch color book on the already printed piece you got on hand and find a Pantone swatch that fits that block of color. IThat's how most commercial printers do it. If you don't have a Pantone book, you can even go to your printer and use their books; usually they have a Spot Pantone and CMYK Pantone versions!

If the material is uncoated (matte), use the matte side and try to find the Pantone color that matches the best.

If the stock is coated (glossy), use the glossy/coated Pantone side.

Then in your software, you can select that Pantone color code and convert it to CMYK if you need to work in CMYK.

The results will not be 100% accurate because the printer used for the block of color you have can change a bit the color and it's also possible it was never a Pantone to start with. But it should still help you get close to the real color.

You don't need and shouldn't scan the printed document you have; this might only distort the color even more.