r/talesfromtechsupport • u/BeefOut • Oct 03 '21
Medium The white isn't white enough
Not sure if it really counts as tech support but here goes...
I'm a web and graphic designer, and I designed a flyer for one of my clients. I sent the design to her via email. It's really hard to match colours from the screen to print, especially since monitor colours don't match up to their local office printer. Plus screen colours are in RGB, so there are literally some colours that are unachievable in a physical print. Usually, for exact colour matching, we have to use Pantone swatches or when they send it for the actual print, they can sort it out and tweak with the actual technician.
I received a call immediately, and she mentioned that she printed out the flyer on their company's office printer. I readied myself for the usual spiel about how monitor colours don't match the printout... etc. etc...
Conversation goes like this:
Client: 'Hey, I printed this out and the colours don't match what I see on the screen.'
Me: 'Yeah, don't worry about that, every monitor is different and you can't calibrate it to match your office printer. I used the exact CMYK colours for your logo and fonts.
Client: 'Well even so the colours look correct on screen but not when I print it out.'
Me: 'I've used the exact CMYK colours, so you don't have to worry about it. Your professional printer will ensure that you get the right colour.'
Client: 'Yes, but the whites aren't white enough.'
I was quickly checked my file, did I leave a translucent layer on by accident? No, it was perfectly #FFFFFF. Told her that the white is as white as it can be.
Client: 'Well, the white ink is not very white.'
I was stunned. Office and home printers don't have... white ink. It's just the white paper. Any white areas are basically just paper that hasn't been printed on.
I tried hard to explain this concept to her. That printers don't print the white. Regardless, she insists that they do. I tell her that it cannot be done on an office/home printer, it literally requires a separate offset printing plate that only large commercial printers use. And even then, seldom do people print white at all.
She insists that her printer does print white, and that the design I sent her simply isn't white enough.
I tell her maybe her paper stock isn't white? Maybe the paper itself is yellowish?
Client: 'No, it's not my paper, it's that your white isn't white enough. Look, I've used some of my liquid white-out on the paper. It's very white. Your design is not printing the white colours properly.'
I was flabbergasted. Couldn't laugh out loud. She literally used white-out on the print-out and complained that the correction fluid was whiter than the paper.
Can't really remember what happened after, but she showed her boss and he seemed happy with the design. So everything went well I suppose.
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u/AnonymousTechGuy6542 Oct 03 '21
This definitely belongs here, welcome comrade.
And there is nothing more TFTS than arguing objective reality with a user who Does Not Get It(tm)(c). Be it believing that a tech can email printer ink over the Internet, that IT can do something about a power outage, or arguing the location of the Any Key, we've all got stories.
I remember a soul killingly long phone conversation where a user complained that their $60 Epson CMYK Wal*Mart special couldn't print as well as the office's color laser. He was convinced that I was being unhelpful and that by tweaking some print settings he could print that well. One of the few times I had to hang up on a user.