Design color standard?

[3Deep]

As a printer and a half azz artist/clipart jockey is there a standard that artist in the biz go by, I know every person  with a computer is an artist now days. mind you some do really nice designs but are almost impossible to sep without redoing the art.  I know in-house artist know what to do and how to use colors that fit the press and limits, so that leads me to ask this question is there an industry standard for colors, I know back before I bought my press one of the top shops here told me that a six to eight color press would handle 90% of the prints you might get coming thru your shop.  I would think large print shops with over 10 press's would have large 16/20 or a little bigger press's, but still how much of that is for screens vs flashes.  I spoke with David Graine many years ago and we discuss a piece of art that was like 8 maybe 10 color sim process and he said it could have been done in 6 using a different method.

[Frog]

tain't no standard.
An artist should check the number of colors available before taking on any job where that could be an issue.
I also remember being in a shop, that as newer, larger machines were installed, damned if the artists didn't suddenly need two reds and three greens where only one of each used to be sufficient.

Those guys made me think of the software engineers who seemed to design less and less efficient bloated programs as the machines for which they were written got more and more powerful.

[Screened Gear]

As a printer and a half azz artist/clipart jockey is there a standard that artist in the biz go by, I know every person  with a computer is an artist now days. mind you some do really nice designs but are almost impossible to sep without redoing the art.  I know in-house artist know what to do and how to use colors that fit the press and limits, so that leads me to ask this question is there an industry standard for colors, I know back before I bought my press one of the top shops here told me that a six to eight color press would handle 90% of the prints you might get coming thru your shop.  I would think large print shops with over 10 press's would have large 16/20 or a little bigger press's, but still how much of that is for screens vs flashes.  I spoke with David Graine many years ago and we discuss a piece of art that was like 8 maybe 10 color sim process and he said it could have been done in 6 using a different method.

I'm not sure I am understanding the question. The standard for colors in about all industries is The Pantone Matching System. Each manufaturer has basic colors that they make but they all have pantone colors you can reference for them. Now the amount of colors used in any design depends on the design. The standard amount of colors shops can print is dependent on the shop. Almost any shop can print 6 colors manually or auto. I would call that a some what standard in the industry. Above that it depends on the shop. I can print up to 9 colors darks but I only Advertise and show pricing up to 6 colors.

Not sure if I answered the questions but I hope it helps.

[3Deep]

Yep you answered it right, but I think I might have tossed the question out there wrong, I know most people when shopping for a  manual press or auto they ask how many print heads should i get and the answer most will tell ya is all you can afford now a days.  Looking back I wish I had got a 10/12.

[Dottonedan]

I think that what you are looking for, is the question of what colors would be used in a 6 color sim process job (being the lowest #) that could work for sim process on dark shirts.

1 Base white

2 Yellow  - 102 -Makes very bright greens and yellow oranges.
3 Red     - 032  Makes very good red oranges and browns purples.
4 Blue     - blue - This one is based on the color temperature of the art and how much the blue will be needed in the other parts to make other colors. Is it a purplish blue like 072 or is it a pastel blue like a 2925. Sometimes a process blue works well for both.

5 Black
6 Top white.

A job like this is almost like using 4 color process but with pms colors. For me, My process colors start out at 3 different levels or options to choose from based on the art. Then get isolated areas (selections) get tweaked based on the needed color area and what I'm using or working with. Then, I might re-separate the file using another 2-3 sets of techniques outside of process conversions that give me other color pops. I pull a channel or two from that and bring it and use where I can that best fits.

I'll also say, if I were strapped for cash when purchasing an auto, I would not be concerned whether I could produce a sim process job or not. I could separate any job on a 6 color auto but of course, would need to show cost difference to customer and the image results. A 6 color won't look as good as a 10.

[Sbrem]

We have a 10 color and a 6 color auto. The 10 does the "fancy" work, and the 20 year old Gauntlet does simpler work. I wouldn't consider buying less than 10 colors for an auto, and if I needed  sexy manual, I'd want an 8 color.

Steve