Color shifts when printing in illustrator vs word - how to avoid?

Question

Working on a graphic for a thank you letter that will be printed and sent out to clients.

Already found exact color that prints as expected (Neon mountain dew green on screen, green apple ish color when printed - perfect). Took RBG#s and applied to elements in word document (boundary accent lines).

The accents in the word document need to match the graphics which are being exported from illustrator and are set to the same rgb color - but are being outputted differently within word.

However, when I export the graphics from illustrator as a PNG-24 and insert the png into word and print - the color in the graphics and in the accents comes out drastically different.

When the graphics are printed directly from illustrator with these print settings:

• Color handling: Let Illustrator determine colors
• Printer Profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1
• Rendering Intent: Absolute Colorimetric

and compared to the document accents printed from word - they match perfectly.

Because they should be converting the rgb to CMYK in an identical fashion (that's why they look the same).

SO - why is it once I export the graphics to png-24 from illustrator and put them into the WORD document and then print - do they look so different?

Am I embedding a color profile and don't even know it? And how do you avoid this?

or am I screwed and going to have to go back in and manually adjust graphics colors until I find a color that outputs the same as the word accents once exported?

What can I do to avoid this and get the exported graphics which have the same rgb color applied to them to output the same as the word document accents?

Thanks!

-J

Additional notes: The graphics have to be exported and used in word as employees will be filling out form elements in the document - otherwise I'd just make the whole thing in indesign and use as a pdf form.

Answer 1

Solved!

In playing with export options in illustrator I spotted .wmf and .emf.

Exporting the graphics as an .emf made the word document accents and graphics match perfectly! Because you're telling it to work in a format that Word clunkily understands!

Insert eurekas, duhs, and celebrating here.

Answer 2

It deserves being said once again, but certain colours will never look the same on-screen as they do in print, no matter how you save the document or what application you use. If you're working with a bright colour — such as Mountain Dew green — it may be out of gamut, meaning that you can't reproduce it with CMYK inks on paper. The only way to create a similar effect is using a spot colour at a professional printer. These neon swatches are formulated differently and can achieve the effect desired.

A similar example — perhaps too simplistic — is of a metallic ink. No matter how hard you try, your office printer won't display a silver shimmer. You have to work with a specialty printer who can make that happen.