: Do I need to change colour settings in Illustrator if printing on uncoated paper? I've created a CMYK logo file that will mostly be printed on uncoated paper. On screen the colour looks much

@Hamaas979

"Tweaking" colour on press or in the ink room is in general not recommended procedure, - unless you know exactly what you are doing, the characteristics of your substrate (paper) - and the LAB value you want for each of your colours (applies only to spot colours - that can be "tweaked" if you can afford to pay extra for time spent in the ink room - or if you yourself (as a customer) order the inks yourself from an ink manufacturer and provide it to the printer with instructions on the target LAB value. In general I would recommend sticking to international standards and selecting your colours based on those - for 4 colour, select your individual colours from the Pantone CMYK guides and for spot colours pick your colours from the Pantone Formula Guides. Use those libraries when setting up your job. Print out a proof and if you have customer colours within the layout that are from the Pantone CMYK guides, make sure to mark them carefully onto the proof (since Pantone CMYK colours are not tagged especially when the plates are output, so the printer needs to know where they are, if you want him to keep an eye on them during printing). Make sure to replace your guides annually. As pointed out here, since the same Pantone number does not look the same when you print the colour on coated stock and uncoated stock, you should create a "set" for each of your brand colours - PMS C - for spot colour printing on coated stock, PMS U - for spot colour printing on uncoated stock, PMS CP - from the Pantone CMYK C guide for process printing on coated stock, PMS UP - from the Pantone CMYK U guide for process printing on uncoated stock, - and then perhaps a "HEX" colour for the web. It is also a very good idea to select which papertypes the customer should use in his marketing, since the white point of the paper and amount of OBA in the paper can completely screw up brand colours - so create a paper set for your customer that is close to neutral white - see details in the ISO 12647-2/2013 standard.

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@Si6392903

Try to define a logo not with cmyk values, which are relative to the color profiles and the medium which will be printed.

I'll give you an example. Do try this at home.

Take a water based marker. A cyan one.

Now draw a line on a white coated paper. Lets say a good quality magazine.

Now draw a line in a newspaper. It is the same ink, it is the same amount of ink. It is not the same color.

A color profile modifies the amount of ink depending on the characteristics of the paper (and ink) trying in the possible to have a consistent color.

Here is a diagram

You can see how converting for example the same RGB file the amount of CMYK inks changes.

The main goal is not to oversaturate the ammount of ink. In our example it would use a "dryer" marker, that delivers less ink so it does not oversaturate the paper.

So when you are using pantone values, that is converted, if needed, to a specific CMYK combination of values.

You need also to define your colors in the Coated or Uncoated pantone guide, which can vary quite a lot.



There is another part of your question:


I wish to preview on screen more closely how the logo will look


For that part you need also to have your monitor calibrated, inclusive you need to have your environmental lights controled. Take a look on color calibration tags on the forum.

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@Frith110

Printing is a tricky business, because every single printer has a different disposition to color. Their goal is to print it as close to the preview of the file you send them.

So your goal is to export the same profile as the one you're working in, so that the final file looks the same as you intended. Whether that working space is coated or not.

Coated paper is more vivid than uncoated paper. That's just a thing you have to know. But good printers know how to tweak saturation to the proper levels based on the type of medium they are printing on.

So, TLDR: No. You're working space is just fine.

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