We lost our press

[Lisa Mueller]

Hi,
Recently our paper decided to print at an off site location. Now we are losing the printer that printed proofs on newsprint thus losing our capability to see what colors will look good in the paper. Anyone have any suggestions on how to effectively and accurately proof pages? Or are we stuck with trial and error on colors?
Thanks in advance!

[Mark McTyre]

Lisa,

One thing we did when doing a redesign at The Seattle Times was to have our entire color palette printed on newsprint from the presses. That way we had it as reference.

I'm not sure what the costs were associated with it, but it was definitely handy to have as a visual.

[Jim McBee]

If you can't get test runs, I would just say simplify down to a handful of colors that you know work OK. While there's nothing explicity wrong with having an ample color palette, it's not like you HAVE to have one to do good design.

[Lisa Mueller]

Thanks for your help! We're in the works of printing our color palette to our newsprint proofer before it goes away. In our spare time (ha ha what spare time?) we're taking color schemes from previously run pages and printing those that worked. We try a lot of new stuff with our niche pubs. it might end up we find out if it works or not after it's printed.

[Jim McBee]

Of course, it may all go out the window if the new press sucks. Or it may be an improvement that opens up possibilities. Hopefully, there's someone knowledgeable and helpful at the new press with whom you can discuss color. That's not always the case, especially with all the layoffs.

[Rama]

friend can i know your website address mine is www.uniontimestody.co.cc

this is news print tell me how is that

[Rama]

sorry www.uniontimestoday.co.cc

[Rama]

sorry to hear that freind

well if it a offset printing or web printing can u please tell me freind i would like to help u

[Lisa Mueller]

We now print offsite and the quality is great, but we have no way of knowing how the colors on our screens will look on newsprint. (i.e. reds turning darker and browner because of ink saturation)

[Pamela Tobey]

We use a big HP color printer that uses rolls of newsprint. The production dept. at the Post calibrated it to match our color specs and we proof from those. It is a HP Design Jet 1050C.

[Lisa Mueller]

Our proofer like that is going away sometime this week. We used the leftover paper from the press and being there's no more press, there's no more paper for that printer to use. We have a colored printer that prints on white paper, just not on newsprint.

[Howard Primer]

If it makes you feel any better, I didn't know that printers like that even existed. When we got a new printer a couple years ago, we were thrilled that it didn't jam up every half hour like the old one.

[James Lambert]

We had one of those newsprint proofers at my last paper and it was awesome.
Playing it safe with a small color pallet would be your best bet I think. It's a good practice anyway and you will ahve eight or ten safe colors to work with.
Toiling away as a Vermont news designer