Is anyone having any trouble matching design colors, to the actual output colors of the Brother machines? They sent us some samples, and were WAY off. Any owners having troubles??
Color profiling is one of the most important parts of the DTG process; the colors are not going to look "accurate", right out of the box, especially for people who use RGB mode to print from. However, with the proper profile calibration, some careful setup and the application of a consistent color space to work in, you should be able to greatly improve the accuracy of your particular machine.
Some people would rather have the machine boost the colors when it prints them on the shirt; this can make the images look more "vibrant", but not more accurate. Printing from RGB mode is one easy way to do this. If you want to start in the right direction, design your artwork in CMYK mode, and pay attention to your working CMYK color profile. I do not have my machine setup for accuracy, since vibrancy is more important to me on most jobs, at the moment..... Since I already feel like I've sacrificed vibrancy for reliability when I switched to the Brother, I use every trick I can for getting more vibrancy out of my prints, rather than making the colors more accurate.
Color profiling is one of the most important parts of the DTG process; the colors are not going to look "accurate", right out of the box, especially for people who use RGB mode to print from. However, with the proper profile calibration, some careful setup and the application of a consistent color space to work in, you should be able to greatly improve the accuracy of your particular machine.
Some people would rather have the machine boost the colors when it prints them on the shirt; this can make the images look more "vibrant", but not more accurate. Printing from RGB mode is one easy way to do this. If you want to start in the right direction, design your artwork in CMYK mode, and pay attention to your working CMYK color profile. I do not have my machine setup for accuracy, since vibrancy is more important to me on most jobs, at the moment..... Since I already feel like I've sacrificed vibrancy for reliability when I switched to the Brother, I use every trick I can for getting more vibrancy out of my prints, rather than making the colors more accurate.
Good luck!
Thanks for the post Justin...
With my line of business...I'm not afforded the opportunity to chose my colors. Since Brother has gone the Windows print driver route... Well, let's just say, I can't leave color up to Bill Gates. I understand your story though, and have followed many of your posts. I hope you've found some peace with Brother!
Overall, Brother has been really good to me. Although I have had my issues, as with any other machine out there (period; I have yet to see a trouble free machine), the overall experience has been very positive. I wouldn't want to candy coat the truth about my troubles, but I also believe in pointing out the positives to the whole experience.
Attempting to control color accuracy / vibrancy / quality, and to always want to see improvements in such things, should definitely not be viewed as a negative thing. I think its great to see Brother owners talking about ways to improve their output.
One suggestion; Brother has a utility that allows you to print the entire range of color swatches in multiple shades and colors.... You can print as many color variations as you want, then mark the ones you really like. Manually create a color palette in Photoshop with the best and brightest colors, then use that palette to edit / create artwork for print. If I recall, the color swatches print with the appropriate RGB or CMYK color values below them (can't remember which).
Color matching with Brother? 
