MBE-Z Business Services

Colour Printing Guidelines

Some printed colours may not meet your expectation.

While we make every effort to print your digital artwork as accurately as we can, sometimes issues outside of our control mean that the colour print may not be exactly as you expect.

Why is this?



Ink Colours - Colour printers usually use a combination of Cyan, Yellow, Magenta & Black (CMYK) inks to create colours. If your file uses CMYK to create your colour you will generally get a good result. Colours such as gold, silver and certain other shades are notoriously difficult to reproduce, however.



Screen Colours - All computer screens use a combination of Red, Green & Blue (RGB) to create colours. If your file uses RGB it has to be converted to CMYK when the file is printed, as colour printers use a combination of CMYK toner to create colours. This process can cause the colour to shift and may give an unsatisfactory result.

Software - Software controls the mixing of colours and some software is more suitable for colour control than others. If you want greater control over colour you must use software that you can reproduce in CMYK such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop. Better yet, provide us a PDF from these Acrobat programs for greatest accuracy.

Microsoft Word, PowerPoint & Excel use RGB and have very limited control over colour and should never be used when colour is critical.

How you can help us

• Always tell us what software program has been used to create the file.
• Indicate before we print the job how critical the colour accuracy is.

How we can help you

• Our digital specialists can layout the job for you using the most appropriate software.
• Provide you with a colour proof for sign-off prior to printing. 
• Advise you of the cost and time to manually convert an RGB file to CMYK
  

© 2010 Mail Boxes Etc. (Australia) Pty Ltd | Terms & Conditions | Privacy & Confidentiality  |