After spending enormous amounts of time creating ads for national
magazines, with runs of 1-5 million or higher, I often see these ads in
print at a later point. There is phenomenal variation in color - sometimes
it looks like different printers, which may very well be true.
The Digital Ad Lab, which meets monthly in NYC, has basically decided that
no one should be trying to match a press - they should make a proof, and it
is the printers job to match the proof, and keep that match consistent over
the press run. Sometimes they can match it and keep it consistent, but most
of the time, they can't. What can you do about it? Absolutely NOTHING!
As a representative of RR Donnelly once told the Dig. Ad Lab, "We have 387
presses here, all heavily booked. How do you know which press we are going
to run it on? Just make a proof we can match, and we will correct for the
presses from their".
I so no other choice but to do this, unless your printer is willing to let
you use enough press time to use his press as a proofing device.