I had a huge color shift on a rush print job for a local bakery

I was at my home studio last Thursday finishing up 500 menus for a new cafe opening. I sent the file to my inkjet printer and the reds came out looking orange, like a pumpkin. The client needed them in 3 hours. I checked my monitor calibration and it was way off, I had not done it in 6 months. I re-calibrated with my SpyderX, reprinted a test sheet, and it matched perfectly. I had to run the whole job again but made the deadline. Has anyone else had a monitor calibration fail on them right before a big deadline?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenixp306d ago

Yeah that drift over time @emma_ramirez mentioned is real. What do you use to check your calibration between full recalibrations?

reeseanderson6d agoTop Commenter

Six months is a long time to let it go, for sure. My old Dell monitor would shift its blues in under two months. What kind of work were you doing in that six month gap that you didn't notice the colors were off?

emma_ramirez7d ago

Oh man, that "monitor calibration fail" line got me. I mean, I don't think it just fails on its own, you know? It's more that it drifts over time. Six months is a long time to go without checking it, especially if you're doing color critical work. I try to do mine like every month, idk, maybe it's just me but it feels like cheap insurance. Glad you caught it in time though, that sounds super stressful.