Improving colour matching on mugs

[melridd]

I'm trying to use same the light blue colour on my logo (RGB: 68, 170, 224) for use as a grid background on some mugs. The colour is okay but not perfect.

I've set up the colour management following this document and I tried printing the design from both Corel Draw X7 and Draw Plus X6, mainly because Corel Draw has more colour management options, but there wasn't much in it. Which is a bonus as I much prefer using DrawPlus than Corel Draw for designing.

I'm using Ricoh SG 3110DN printer, with Sublijet-R cartridges, Trupix paper, Listawood Durham Duraglaze Mugs pressed in Genie Mug at 180 deg C for 180 sec.

I know trying to match a printed card with a sublimation process is tricky but can anyone give any tips as to how to improve/match the colour more closely?

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Many thanks, Melanie

[pisquee]

a custom ICC profile will help you get a closer match, than a generic ink manufacturer one (or powerdriver)

[spongerobinson]

Yes, a custom ICC would be best, but even then an exact match might be difficult. Another way would be to print a mug with a swatch of similar blues, and find the closest one by eye.

[melridd]

Thank you both, I'm trying the spot colour replacement in the Power driver and getting better results but think the ICC custom profile would be worthwhile.

[socialgiraffe]

Bear in mind that you are selecting an RGB colour to be printed in CMYK. This will produce different results.

[AlanD]

After trying with a profile I settled for Powerdriver and Corel Draw. Reds are the only problem colour I encounter, other don't seem to bad

[pisquee]

After trying with a profile I settled for Powerdriver and Corel Draw. Reds are the only problem colour I encounter, other don't seem to bad

I'm surprised that you got a custom profile made and found better results with PowerDriver.

[AlanD]

I'm surprised that you got a custom profile made and found better results with PowerDriver.

Not a custom profile, just settings as instructed from Sawgrass. The Power driver yields better results and perfectly good enough for the sort of thing I use it for. A custom profile may well be better still and something I may explore later if the need arises. My expectation is not so much how vibrant a colour necessarily is but how close is the finished printed item to that displayed on my calibrated monitor and I have to say with the exception of certain hues of red colours they are consistently pretty close.