Signage Education | Color Management Part 8, Selecting a Vendor

An informal survey conducted by Castek Resources indicates that over 95% of sign shops have no understanding of color management at all. Of the remaining 5%, only a small percentage has any color management process in place. When color is critical, finding the right vendor is key.

Fortunately, narrowing the field of prospective vendors is relatively easy. For most vendors, determining their ability is as simple as asking about their color management process. If your inquiry is met with blank stares, you know they’re in the 95% that are uninformed and thus, incapable of developing a formal process.

If your sign shop shows passion when describing their color management process, they may be in the 5% minority. If you’re curious about what distinguishes Spectrum Signs when it comes to color management, an overview of our environment and process follows:

Lighting
We use Lumichrome bulbs in our showroom and production area. These bulbs aren’t available at home or office super stores and cost 7-10 times as much as standard fluorescent bulbs. Lumichrome bulbs are full spectrum, without the imbalanced spectral distribution of other fluorescents, and offer the highest color rendition available.

Media
Every media used at Spectrum Signs is profiled before use to ensure color accuracy. Even banner media that is seldom used for color critical signage is profiled. Similar medias with varying surfaces have unique profiles as the difference in a gloss and matte surface affects color output and perception. Temperature and relative humidity are noted at the time of profile creation. The output from the profiling process, single color ink limits, combined ink limits, color ramps and swatches are retained for customer review if desired.

Monitor and Scanner
Our monitors are calibrated and profiled every 4 weeks to ensure that accurate color is displayed during design. Our scanners are profiled quarterly.

Environment
As discussed in earlier articles, temperature and humidity can affect color printing, and therefore must be controlled to ensure consistent color output. A wall mounted digital hygrometer in our production environment displays temperature and humidity. A humidifier is used if humidity drops too low. Our production environment is heated and air conditioned to keep temperatures optimal for printing.

For customers that create their own artwork internally, we offer an environmental review, color consultation and equipment profiling service. This further ensures accuracy of color as design is a critical part of production.

Spot Colors
A library of Pantone colors has been painstakingly created, scanning each Pantone color swatch with the Gretag Macbeth I1 Extreme color spectrophotometer. Custom spot colors for your particular application can be created using the same equipment. For the most critical color applications, color swatches can be printed on our printer, in our environment, and on our media for your reference.

Ink
While many sign shops look for bargain priced ink, we use only genuine Roland Eco-Sol Max inks to ensure quality, consistency and predictable color output.

Training
Our staff has been formally trained on color theory, color management, and the use of a color spectrophotometer in equipment calibration and media profile creation.

If your sign shop doesn’t understand color management, or does not have a color managed workflow in place, their only option in color printing is settling for “close enough”, the result of trial and error. If you’ve ever had results that were unacceptable or took several tries, you owe it to yourself to find a sign shop that will get it right the first time, every time. Accurate color production is a science. Understanding the factors affecting color output and managing those factors is yet another way Spectrum Signs distinguishes themselves from most sign manufacturers.

For more information, contact:

Spectrum Signs
23382 Madero Suite L
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
(949) 297-3800

Spectrum Signs