My first try at doing something for print

[philt]

I am making my first attempt at preparing something for print--a simple 4 colour business card. I worked up my design using Minimiro’s CMYK Color Model Template. If I understand things rightly (I've been through Gary's recent tutorial), I can send the printer a 300 dpi CMYK tif and this is all that should be required? I'd appreciate it if someone can conrirm. The design incorporates a transparency and a gradient fill.

Colour issues are still confusing to me. I set my workspace to simulate printer colour and I hope this is reasonably accurate since it's all I have to go by. But I see that when I display my cmyk tiff image--in Irfan for instance--of course I don't see the colour corrected for print, but when I bring the tif into Xara1 and simulate printer colour, it looks okay. So I guess this will somehow all come out okay from the printer?

Any comments and help much appreciated.

[philt]

I am making my first attempt at preparing something for print--a simple 4 colour business card. I worked up my design using Minimiro’s CMYK Color Model Template. If I understand things rightly (I've been through Gary's recent tutorial), I can send the printer a 300 dpi CMYK tif and this is all that should be required? I'd appreciate it if someone can conrirm. The design incorporates a transparency and a gradient fill.

Colour issues are still confusing to me. I set my workspace to simulate printer colour and I hope this is reasonably accurate since it's all I have to go by. But I see that when I display my cmyk tiff image--in Irfan for instance--of course I don't see the colour corrected for print, but when I bring the tif into Xara1 and simulate printer colour, it looks okay. So I guess this will somehow all come out okay from the printer?

Any comments and help much appreciated.

[Charles Moir]

The 'simulate printer colours' is approximate only (but MUCH better than screen colours). I'd would always encourage you to try and get your printer to provide a proof. Most printers can provide a variety of colour proofs depending on the equipment they have. Some are just ink-jet prints but that's better than nothing because they usually know how accurate their own proofs are. A 'wet proof' is the best because this is an example of the real printing process, but also tends to be very expensive.

A CMYK tif is one of the safer ways of sending the file to the printer, especially if you work contains transparency. If you have small text that you want to be really sharp it might be worth making that a 600dpi CMYK tif. If you have the Xara X1 box (and it's not been squashed beyond recognition) the back of that was produced as a 600dpi CMYK tif file and you can see the text is pin-sharp and it's the usually very challenging white text out of black.

The only other tip worth remembering is to make sure the black text appears on the black plate only. If it's full black this should work OK. You can preview the plates by selecting the Windows -> Show Printer Colours -> Show Black.. etc, Checking that the text only appears on the black plate. Oh, and black text should always (where you can) be on top of everything else.

If you are using transparency then I'd recommend forgetting using CMYK colours or Minimiro's colour templates. Anything that uses transparency is converted to RGB colours first and then separated to CMYK colours and so any original CMYK colours will not be preserved. This doesn't matter in 99% of all cases, but means you might just as well use RGB or HSV colours for all your work.

But the bottom line is that if the Show Printer Colour looks about right, and you export as a CMYK tif then things should work OK.

I know some other people just output a RGB tif bitmap and let the printer do the separation using Photoshop or some other app, and that's perfectly OK way of doing it as well, but the colour balance may come out slightly differently and things like black text may not appear only on the black plate.

Other ways of getting the file to the printer include as an EPS or PDF, or even in some cases a separated PDF, but these are a more complex approach.

A proof from the printer is the best way to be sure you'll get what you want.

[jens g.r. benthien]

I just finished another project for a flyer. Needless to say that the printing co works with a Mac system and requires CMYK color separation. So I ran some tests during the past weeks,based on following consideration:

01.Usually you finish your art work and then export it to eps, preferably to CMYK.
02. What if I convert the RGB TIF to CMYK with the tool from Brian in the XaraZone, import it into Xara with the format converted back to RGB, but with the correct colors?

I've done it, and it works great! The printing co screamed hell when they received my PDF, but the printed result left them speechless. The client and me as well.

There is always a path around an obstacle!

Life can be so simple, just give it a try.

[raynerj]

Jens,

I did not follow you procedures there... sounds flubbed up, but if it works than I am interested in a little more information. Maybe even an example for the intellectually challenged?

[jens g.r. benthien]

John,

I'll try my best.

Standard approach:

01. art work
02. embedded rgb tif
03. export to eps with cmyk
04. external printing

My approach:

01. convert rgb tif to cmyk
02. art work
03. import your cmyk tif
04. export to eps - X will export the tif as rgb
05. external printing

Converting the rgb to cmyk will modify/reduce the color space. my consideration was: does it matter where in the chain I modify/reduce the color space? No, it doesn't. Because the cmyk is limited in color space, and the conversion inside X won't extend the color space, it will keep it, and if it will be separated later it will show perfect cmyk colors - a logical step.

And the result is great.

The printing co will claim there will be a color shift because the eps contains an rgb - but this won't happen, because the rgb already features a limited color space from the cmyk pic you have converted before the entire process.

It's like driving a diesel in winter: it doesn't matter if you fill up your tank with diesel first and then add some petroleum or unleaded, or if you first pour in a diluter and then add the diesel - it definitely will burn and bring the engine to life ;-}

I've invested some funds into this experiment with identical content and exactly the same pic. the 'raw' rgb was a bit flat in printing, but the converted cmyk was perfect.

Just my very own experience. But this world needs unusual approaches. Thank God I'm independent and free to experiment, even if Adobe claims that nothing else but their standards will be able to bring ink to paper the correct way ;-}

BTW, there are still some printing cos around who have savvy teams and know how to run an eps with rgbs through a rip for separations. Nothing can beat a rip, believe me.

[raynerj]

Thanks Jens,

I will have to give this method a try. Sounds logical in a twisted sort of way.

[philt]

A new problem seems to have cropped up for me. I installed the Xara1 patch this morning and now find that I can't export CMYK tif. I either get an access violation exception fault or else no output at all. I guess I'll have to blow Xara1 away and see if re-installing without the patch works. Meanwhile wondering if anyone else has run into this? JPG export continues to work.

[philt]

Seems that the more I read, the more confused I get--there seem to be so many ways to export for print, and so many pitfalls. It would probably help me a lot if I had an idea of just what's happening when I export my Xara1 drawing as CMYK Tif; and how this file is used by the printing company. I'm hoping some patient forum guru can help me get a handle on this.

[alexbozhenov]

Hi Phil!

If you have PhotoShop installed, then just export your artwork as RGB Tiff or Xara EPS. Then open this file in PhotoShop and convert to CMYK, save as TIFF. Probably you will have to adjust brightness/contrast a little.