How to darken a color on an already pressed paper…
Hello! I am hoping someone in this community can help me as I don’t know anything about letterpress. I received my wedding invitations today and the colors I asked for are not the colors I received. I completely understand printing a color is different then what may have appeared on screen in the proof, but this is just off. I asked for a raspberry color for our names and the floral design and instead got a more light to medium pink, like a bubblegum pink. So I need to send these out ASAP and don’t know what to do. Is there any way to darken the pink color on the paper that was already pressed? Can I use a fine tip marker or pen?
Any help or suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated.
Unless you asked for a specific pantone color, there’s a lot of variety in reds on the press. There’s not really an easy way to darken a finished print. Your results may look sloppy with a pen or marker, but I suppose it’s one way you could go if the color is that atrocious.
In the long run, I think it may be better just to take this as a learning experience or contact the printer. Ideally one should schedule a press check or hold on final payment until the results are approved, but I have no idea of the details involved in this situation. Sounds like something was misunderstood.
Good luck!
James Beard
Vrooooom Press
www.vrooooom.org
I thought maybe clear spraypaint would work, so I tested it. It only makes a mess. Maybe you can learn to love the color pink? It can be a nice color in the right context.
Maybe you could trim the invitations a bit and back them with a raspberry red sheet of paper.
if you don’t have access to a pantone book, i would always advise sending a swatch of something (paper, fabric, etc.) that is the color you are looking for. you absolutely can not trust a computer screen to give you an accurate color representation. raspberry to one won’t be the same to another. i think that you are stuck unless you can work something out with the printer.
did you get envelopes through the printer? if not, maybe try adding another color to take some focus away from or maybe even complement the pink. i would keep the pens far, far away.
Home depot paint chips! Po’ mans pantone.
To add to what cleanwash said, maybe you can add a patterned liner to the envelopes that would combine the raspberry you wanted with the pink you got. You could even custom-design something on your computer, make a template, cut the liners with a paper trimmer and scissors, and glue them in. It doesn’t take as long as you think. Here’s an example.
Barbara
Where are you located, maybe someone close to you could help, i would try contacting the printer first to see if he would do anything for you, if you are close i would be glad to try to help. Good Luck Dick G.
Maybe you could get another pass printed with the darker raspberry color offset a small amount (maybe like 1/32 to 1/16 depending on the design) from the other printing in just the floral areas. That would give it an effect of a having a drop shadow of the lighter color. The darker color should overprint it well enough.
It’s possible this might not be viable though if there is too deep of an impression on the first pass. I don’t know.
Can you post a picture of the invitation?
If the original was printed with registration guides it’s possible to do a double hit to darken the color. This would need to be done by your original printer though. He’s going to lose a few getting the registration lined up though. If He has more paper, a reprint would probably be the best bet.