CMYK and Bitmaps

[corsair]

Hi,
I've been searching and reading up on CMYK, but still have a problem - photos. I've been doing a prospectus for my wife's school and the Printers don't like it. they don't want a TIFF they want ai. We can't run to buying Adobe Illustrator. I've tried exporting as an .ai and as an .eps. The Printers are moaning that the text isn't truly black, and that the pictures are dull, well CMYK seems to do that to pictures. Is there any way to keep the colour in photos when you're having to work in CMYK?
Cheers
Fraser

[jclements]

Any you are not able to resave your CMYK picture to RGB color space?

[corsair]

Nope, the printers want CMYK.

[RedWombat]

I would get a different printer. They seem to be missing some crucial customer service skills. Unwilling to go the extra mile for their customers. I'm sure you could find a printer willing to work with you or at the very least help you solve your problem.

[jens g.r. benthien]

black text: select your text, click the color editor, select cmyk, set cmy values to 0, only k to 100% or 255.

however, it might be that they use a digital printing process - which they should tell you. then they can give you the 'correct' values for black, which is called 'built black' and could have values like i.e.

C- 40%
M- 20%
Y- 5%
K- 100%

these values depend on the equipment they use for the digital printing...

and if they don't know what you are talking about, check for another printer, really.

[corsair]

Thanks guys,
A lot of the problem is communication - they don't speak English, I don't speak Czech, and my liason with them who does, isn't a graphics person...but she, and I, are learning fast. I'll find out how they do their blacks.

I grew up with bits of paper, key lines and hand it over to the print room for separations! Didn't realise how easy it was then...if painfully slow.

This just leaves the photos! How can I get them to look better in CMYK? Any ideas?
Regards
Fraser

[jens g.r. benthien]

Fraser,

This just leaves the photos! How can I get them to look better in CMYK?

Well, that's a tiny problem with xtreme (or x1). It doesn't support CMYK separation or printing.

Solutions are:

01. generate a TIFF @ 300 or even 600 dpi. The printer can run it through a RIP (Raster Image Processor) to get CMYK films or printing plates. Any lousy RIP can do this (and every printer has to have a RIP).

02. export your drawing as a TIFF with the CMYK (32bit) color option checked/enabled - this will put you in control.

03. install a Linotronic driver and print your drawing to a file with the extent *.eps (install the driver so that it connects to the port 'file' instead of an existing port). The printer will run it through the RIP etc.

This procedure is different than the export as EPS! and has the advantage that all fonts will be converted to lines, so you won't run into the annoying font trap. You can use GhostScript with GSView to check your results.

04. In the Xara Xone there is a freeware converter RGB to CMYK. Convert your TIFF with this tool and import it into xtreme. The colors **will** look different! However, this ensures that the RIP won't modify the colors. Again, this puts you in control of the process (ok, to be honest, this is far from being a standard, but it works).

05. Purchase Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional and print your drawing to a PDF. With Acro 7 you can generate CMYK separations.

06. Purchase Macromedia Freehand. Design your vector works in Xara, export them via *.eps and import the objects into Freehand. As long as you don't have bevel or shadow or whatever effect, this is a smooth process. Be warned that Freehand messes up if the file size of the imported object is too large. You can download a 30 day evaluation copy from macromedia.com (unfortunately an Adobe product now).

My prefered method(s) to handle this stuff: # 03, #04, #02, #06.

[corsair]

Wow! Thanks Jens. I shall study what you've written, and give it some practice!
Thanks again
Fraser

[wW]

You've covered everything Jens.

In XaraX I use crop marks that are CMYK. To get them to print on all CMYK plates they have to be 100% on each color - c,m,y & k. Relative to what Jens wrote above.

You can do this In Xtreme too. Select the item & change it to a CMYK color (using the sliders) or combo for mixed colors.

[raccoon2]

Hi
I own a professional printing and Graphic Design Company.
This printing company you are using sounds useless, most printing shops accept
Adobe, Corel Files, and most printing companys prefer PDF, which we find corelDRAW does this best, as Adobe Acrobat is expensive for the home user.
Regarding CYMK photos, that is wrong all photos should be printed in RGB.
We print on our wide format printers all graphics as CMYK and photos at 300dpi in RBG, and have perfect results every time, if you print your photos in CMYK they will loose colour and look washed out. we have a huge client base and print commerical banners and prints, my advice find a new printing company.