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Main => Artwork => Topic started by: Warrition on January 17, 2008, 05:44:54 pm

Title: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: Warrition on January 17, 2008, 05:44:54 pm
Hello all,

I'm getting ready to purchase my control panel overlay (from Mamemarquees), and have an art question.  I have each player's buttons and joystick outlined with a color that matches their buttons (i.e. red, yellow, green, and blue), but I'm having a hard time figuring out which exact colors to make each outline.  Does anyone know the RGB values for red, yellow, green and blue that will, when printed out, match the standard Happ button colors?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Warrition
Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: summers on January 28, 2008, 12:42:20 pm
Bump..............Looking for an answer to this.
Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: Ritalin on January 29, 2008, 03:48:30 pm
Sorry, I don't have an answer to this, but just to note, you'll want the CMYK colors for the buttons, not the RGB.
RGB (red, green, blue) is for on-screen only. CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) is for printing. Things that look great on-screen, don't always print in those same colors, so that's why you need CMYK or pantone spot colors as the constant.
Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: waveryder on January 30, 2008, 02:30:46 am
Read the FAQ  :banghead:
Its full of useful information!

CYMK  is only apllicable if your desgnated printer can only produce a 4 colour print. RGB although an on screen colour format, can be reproduced with very good results if it is printed on good quality equiptment. Epson Large Format printers do a great job at printing RGB! Mamemarquees print RGB artwork, to a better standard than a CMYK print as the do not use 4 colour seperation. CMYK "naffs up" reds and blues. So you need to find out were you final piece is going to be printed before you start.

The reason you have got no answer for your RGB button colours is that you are asking the impossible! How can you get a colour code off of a piece of polyurathane plastic? The buttons are effected by light, UV and reflection. Your eyes will percieve a colour change depending on what angle you look at them from!
You need to make a best guess for your colours im afraid.
Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: Ritalin on January 30, 2008, 03:33:32 pm
Read the FAQ  :banghead:
Its full of useful information!

CYMK  is only apllicable if your desgnated printer can only produce a 4 colour print. RGB although an on screen colour format, can be reproduced with very good results if it is printed on good quality equiptment. Epson Large Format printers do a great job at printing RGB! Mamemarquees print RGB artwork, to a better standard than a CMYK print as the do not use 4 colour seperation. CMYK "naffs up" reds and blues. So you need to find out were you final piece is going to be printed before you start.

The reason you have got no answer for your RGB button colours is that you are asking the impossible! How can you get a colour code off of a piece of polyurathane plastic? The buttons are effected by light, UV and reflection. Your eyes will percieve a colour change depending on what angle you look at them from!
You need to make a best guess for your colours im afraid.

Sorry to chime in, but you should always convert to CMYK yourself because the very same factors that you described making color matching impossible for tangible RGB items (light, UV and reflection, etc.) are the very same things that make on-screen RGB just as impossible to match among different screens (monitor calibration, brightness of display,LCD vs. CRT displays, etc.) You always want to use CMYK or Pantone spot colors for printing, and view printed proofs. RGB should be considered for on-screen only.

Any printer is simply going to convert your RGB file to spot colors or CMYK colors anyway, so you want as little conversion as possible. A place like Mamemarquees might print RGB artwork just fine, and that's great, but they're simply converting your image to CMYK or converting to spot colors. Epson large format printers use CMYK ink with additional spot colors at times. Many large scale printers will accept an RGB data file natively and call themselves "RGB printers", but they will simply internally do a conversion to CMYK inks. All ink is CMYK.
Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: waveryder on January 30, 2008, 04:05:20 pm
Many large scale printers will accept an RGB data file natively and call themselves "RGB printers", but they will simply internally do a conversion to CMYK inks. All ink is CMYK.

No its not. Newer large format UV pigmented printers use CMYK and LM and LC. They use the 2 extra shades to reproduce RGB output. as the colour differential as I have previously stated is "naff reds and blues". You are refering to older technology, which by now any supplier of artwork should have abandoned, No printout can reproduce on screen colours, the concept is ridiculous. Any graphics work cannot be considered WYSIWG if the end result is going to be a hard copy. Any decent print supplier can reproduce near RGB colours if they are using UV pigmented ink and quality equiptment and stock.
Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: Ritalin on January 30, 2008, 08:15:24 pm
I'll just have to agree to disagree with you since many print vendors I use here still use CMYK and don't want RGB files at all. However, we both agree that on-screen representation is never a true representation.

For true color matching of Happ Buttons, one is better off just printing a color range and then proofing the hard copy in comparison to the actual buttons. Numerical on-screen equivalents will not be absolute.


Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: waveryder on January 31, 2008, 03:01:09 am
many print vendors I use here still use CMYK and don't want RGB files at all.

Thats one of the many reasons I shopped around for an alternative vendor to produce my cabinet artwork. You can view the image to printout results here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=74032.0 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=74032.0)

The CMYKLmLc UV pigmented printout is almost identical to the original RGB, no small feat considering it is essential all painted with reds and blues.
Title: Re: RGB colors for standard Happ buttons?
Post by: Ritalin on January 31, 2008, 12:50:12 pm
waveryder, those are some EXCELLENT results you got!
Love the artwork and your print looks great as well.

Just to note, if you ever need some really basic Japanese or Chinese text, let me know.
I do graphics for a translation company. I can just throw in an extra line of text for our translators to translate at no cost on occasion. Cheers.