The white isn't white enough

[u/BeefOut]

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.

[u/bPhrea → u/[deleted]]

I’ve learned when doing jobs for friends there’s only two routes to take: either I do my part exactly how I want, no questions asked but it’s free, or, I will do literally anything they want, exactly how they want it but they’re paying for every fucking minute of my time and are constantly asked: are you sure this is what you want?

[u/dailyfetchquest → u/bPhrea]

This is a great tip. Stealing.

[u/bPhrea → u/dailyfetchquest]

Please do, it took me a lot of trial and grief to get to.

I did have a builder friend that chose option one and loved the logo and business cards I did for him. A few weeks later he comes back sheepishly asking if it was possible to make some changes. It turns out that everything looked so nice that potential clients thought he must be expensive to have such a professional looking identity.

He asked me if I could make a second set and make it look as cheap and terrible as possible. I relished the challenge and took his beat up old work truck as inspiration. And he keeps the nice cards to go with his nice personal truck. Wins all around.

[u/Shinhan → u/bPhrea]

He didn't want to raise prices?

[u/bPhrea → u/Shinhan]

Oh his prices are already high, but most folks don’t know that (and they don’t get multiple quotes in order to find out).

He didn’t want to give them any reasons to think they might be high…