Our printers are calibrated daily to reproduce colours as accurately as possible. However, there may still be slight differences between the colours in your file and the final printed result. This is because every screen is calibrated differently. For this reason, we cannot provide a complete colour guarantee for orders. In practice, however, significant differences from the submitted design are rare.
If colours turn out darker or lighter than expected, there can be several reasons, such as contrast settings, total ink coverage or the colour profile used. For the best result, we recommend slightly lowering the brightness of your screen when reviewing your design. Screens use the RGB colour model (light), while our printers use the CMYK colour model (ink). Because these systems work in fundamentally different ways, colours may appear different in print. Therefore, always prepare your file in CMYK. This reduces the chance of unexpected colour differences in the final print.
Dark colours
Make sure there is enough contrast between dark colours so that details remain visible and your design does not turn into one dark area. It is also important to keep the total ink coverage below 230%. Colours with a higher total ink coverage may be reproduced as black by the printer.
Keep in mind that dark colours can always appear slightly darker in print than they do on screen. This is because a screen emits light, while printed paper does not.
Light colours
Light colours have a low total ink coverage, which means the printer uses less ink to reproduce them. With a total ink coverage below 70%, it can be difficult to reproduce the colour accurately. In some cases, a light colour may therefore look different than expected or appear almost white. For this reason, we cannot provide a colour guarantee for very light colours.
For the best result, we recommend keeping the total ink coverage between 70% and 230%.