Color accuracy in wide-format printing isn’t about having “good eyes.”

It’s about understanding how a printer behaves under real production conditions.

Wide-format inkjet printers are dynamic systems.

Ink, media, environment, and usage all influence output — often without warning.

• Printers drift over time

• Media changes affect ink behavior

• Visual judgment is inconsistent

• Problems are discovered after printing begins

Most color issues aren’t mistakes — they’re undetected changes.

Why Baselines Matter

In any controlled process, accuracy starts with a known reference.

In printing, that means understanding how a printer responds to defined color inputs before production begins.

The Art City Wraps Color Control System

Our color control system is built around a simple idea:

replace subjective judgment with repeatable reference.

• Standard CMYK solids to evaluate ink strength and hue bias

• K-only gray ramps to observe neutral behavior

• Paper white reference to normalize substrate response

This system does not replace spectrophotometers.

It replaces guessing.

How This Fits into a Production Workflow

This tool is designed to be used at the beginning of a print session — before jobs are run and before issues become costly.

1. Print the baseline strip

2. Observe or analyze the results

3. Make small, controlled adjustments

4. Reprint to confirm

5. Proceed with confidence

The entire process takes less than five minutes.

Who This Is For

• Sign and graphics shops

• Vehicle wrap printers

• Wide-format production teams

• Shops running multiple printers or media types

If color consistency matters to your operation, this lab was built for you.

This system was developed and tested inside an active wide-format production environment, not a controlled lab setting.

Color control is not about perfection.

It’s about predictability.