Printing and matching LAB, CMYK, RGB colors in a studio.
I work in a studio environment, setting up art for sublimation on fabric mostly. We work with licensed artwork so color matching is important.
Problem : design directors make color decisions based on printouts from an uncalibrated digital printer. I was trying to match a set of custom colors from an account today and ran into this problem.
Each of the swatches are the same color, just different color modes ( LAB, cmyk, RGB ). The LAB color is most accurate printing from a cmyk printer.
My questions : why does the lab color print so much differently with the same toners from the same printer
Is the color mode we choose for each swatch affecting the printed paper at the factories making our fabric?
What would be the best way to approach color management through production? Our design directors use the paper print outs to make important decisions prior to production.
Thanks for your ideas.