10 Pre-Press Tips For Perfect Print Publishing
A lot of designers think CMYK is the way to go when designing for print. We will, of course, always use CMYK-based ink, but this does not mean you have to work with CMYK files. You can work with RGB images to perfectly optimize your print colors and save a great deal of time in the process.
You may be interested in the following related posts:
- Switch From Print To Web: Where To Start?
- The Ultimate Round-Up of Print Design Tutorials
- Creative Print Typography Layouts
- Award-Winning Newspaper Designs
1. Use RGB Color Mode For Photoshop Images
For several of the following tips to work, you will have to create and save all of your Photoshop images and artwork in RGB color mode. If you’re a veteran designer, you probably think this goes against what you’ve been taught, which is to use CMYK color mode. Well, technology has come a long way, and nowadays RGB color mode is better because it produces a wider range of colors and allows you to use one image for several media, including print and Web.
Think of it this way: RGB colors (red, green, and blue) are created with light. That’s why your computer monitor and TV use RGB colors to produce its fantastic range of colors. CMYK colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and key, or black), on the other hand, are created by putting ink to paper. “Ink-on-paper colors” will never be as bright or saturated as the colors on your computer screen or TV, no matter how much ink you add to the paper. So, to get the widest range of colors possible, you need to save all of your Photoshop files in RGB color mode. Most of the time, you won’t even have to think about it, because almost every photographer will supply you with RGB images. All you have to do is keep them in that mode.
A 3-D map showing the range of the Adobe RGB (1998) color space, the sRGB (or small RGB) color space and the common newspaper CMYK color space. sRGB’s range is much smaller than Adobe RGB’s. Working in the Adobe RGB color space would result in much brighter colors. The range of the CMYK color space is much narrower. Especially for this newspaper, the white in CMYK mode isn’t white at all. It’s more of a dirty brown.
2. Specify The Right Color Settings
To successfully use an RGB image in Adobe InDesign, you first need to specify the appropriate color settings. Fortunately, Adobe has made it really easy for you to specify the right settings and quickly apply them across its Creative Suite. This is where Adobe Bridge comes in.
To specify a color setting in Adobe Bridge, choose Edit → Creative Suite Color Settings and then select your region: either “North America Prepress 2,” “Europe Prepress 2″ or “Japan Prepress 2.” If your region isn’t displayed in the dialog box, select “Show Expanded List Of Color Settings Files” at the bottom of the dialog box. After clicking “Apply,” the setting you have specified will be applied to Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat.
3. Ditch Photoshop EPS Files And Use PSD Files Instead
After your images and artwork have been saved in RGB color mode and you’ve specified the right color settings, it’s time to start designing. Do you still keep a copy of your native Photoshop (PSD) files and save TIFF or EPS versions, which you then import into InDesign? If so, you’re missing out on some valuable opportunities.
If you’ve been using InDesign for a while, you probably already know that it honors transparency effects in PSD files, but that’s not all. When you import PSD files, InDesign also honors clipping paths, spot colors, alpha channels, duotone colors and vector information (such as Smart Objects). You can even access all the layers in a PSD file by selecting “Show Import Options” when you import an image or choosing Object → Object Layer Options after importing an image. With all of these time-saving opportunities, saving all of your Photoshop images in the PSD file format is a no-brainer.
4. Accurately Simulate CMYK While Working In RGB
Keep in mind that even though you’re importing RGB images with bright and saturated colors, InDesign actually shows you what the CMYK equivalent of each image will look like. So, how does InDesign make that color conversion properly? Well, because you’ve specified the appropriate color settings in Adobe Bridge, InDesign will use those settings to accurately display each RGB image when it’s converted to CMYK color mode.
InDesign even goes a step further and shows you exactly how the colors in a layout will appear when printed on a certain type of paper using a specific output device. Simply choose View → Proof Setup → Custom. Then choose an output device from the “Device to Simulate” pop-up menu, and select the “Simulate Paper Color” option. After clicking “Okay,” the color of your pages will change, and your images will appear darker and less saturated. So, to get a good idea of how your layout will appear when printed on coated paper using a sheet-fed printer, choose “U.S. Sheetfed Coated v2.” This feature is great because it gives you an accurate idea of how your colors will appear when they’re printed.
If you use Photoshop, you may be wondering, “Wouldn’t it be nice if Photoshop could do the same trick, so that I can see what happens to my RGB images when they’re converted to CMYK?” Well, of course it can. Just choose View → Proof Colors, and make sure that “Working CMYK” is specified by choosing View → Proof Setup → Working CMYK. When you proof colors, you’re not actually changing the color mode of the image, so you can continue working in RGB color mode while simulating CMYK. This is yet another reason not to convert your Photoshop files to CMYK.
The top part of this image is a “SoftProof” of how this RGB image will appear when printed in a newspaper. The bottom part shows the original sRGB. The dirty color is actually the color of the paper. As you can see, the color of the paper affects all other colors.
5. Selecting the Right CMYK Output Profile For The Job
There are many different kinds of paper, such as recycled and brownish paper for newspapers, glossy paper for magazines, uncoated paper for stationary and bright-white coated paper for high-quality brochures. As you can imagine, each type has different characteristics when it comes to printing. The recycled paper sucks up more ink, and if you don’t take this into account, your beautiful full-color photos will become too dark, and the ink will blur over the paper, creating an ugly brownish effect.
So, how do you optimize artwork for all of these different kinds of papers? Well, that’s the easy part. Standard CMYK inks have been tested on every type of paper to the extreme. The way cyan, magenta, yellow and black are printed on a specific type of paper is documented in an ICC profile. All you need to do is download these free “Color Profiles” and select the right one when you export a PDF using InDesign (Export → Output → Color Conversion & Destination). If you’re not sure what kind of paper your printer will use, simply ask them. Most printers would rather answer a simple question than clean up colors afterward.
The information provided by the color setting that you specified in Adobe Bridge is used by InDesign to determine how to convert RGB images to the CMYK color space when you output a document. By using InDesign instead of Photoshop to make that conversion, you gain the benefits outlined in the following point.
6. Use InDesign Instead Of Photoshop To Make The Final Color Conversion
There are several good reasons to let InDesign do the conversion:
- Images are all converted at the same time instead of one at a time before you import each into InDesign.
- You can reuse the same image for different purposes. For instance, you might want to re-use the image on your website for a brochure, magazine or newspaper. If you let InDesign do the color conversion, it will optimize your RGB images for whatever output device and type of paper you choose.
- You can simulate how the colors in a layout will appear on different kinds of paper using the same RGB images.
When you use Photoshop to convert all of your images to CMYK before importing them into your InDesign layouts, you prevent InDesign from optimizing the color for different output devices and paper types. If you make the conversion to CMYK first and start designing later, you might unwittingly alter the “maximum ink” and other important color-related characteristics that were pre-defined in your Photoshop file when Photoshop converted your RGB image to CMYK.
As a result, when you work on the colors and contrast later, what you see on screen won’t be what you get in print because you have altered the optimal colors.
7. Download All The Profiles
Different CMYK Color Profiles are available for different kind of papers and print processes. Several organizations provide top-of-the-line ICC profiles, all of which can be downloaded for free at the bottom of this page. The most common are:
- Newspaper: ISOnewspaper
- Magazines: ISOWebcoated
- Full Color Offset:
- U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
- ISOCated_v2
- ISOuncoated
- Europe ISOCoated FOGRA27
- (or the new one, FOGRA39)
8. Exporting A Perfect CMYK PDF Using RGB Images
Once you’ve downloaded and installed the ICC profiles, they’ll be available to InDesign. You don’t even need to select the right profile and assign it to your InDesign document. All you have to do is select the right ICC profile when you export the document to PDF (Export → Output → Color Conversion & Destination). Although you don’t need to assign the right CMYK profile, I would recommend it, because it allows InDesign to match the colors when you select the “Proof Colors” command.
After choosing File → Export and specifying Adobe PDF as the file format, select the “Output” category on the left side of the “Export Adobe PDF” dialog box. Choose the appropriate CMYK destination from the “Destination” menu, so that InDesign can optimally convert all RGB images to CMYK. Also, be sure to select “Convert to Destination (Preserve Numbers)” from the “Color Conversion” menu so that the colors you’ve created in InDesign will maintain their original values.
9. Avoiding Errors When Using RGB Images And Spot Colors
You can use RGB images even when producing a high-end brochure that has die-cut embossed areas and spot UV coating. All you have to do is lay everything out in InDesign and then use a spot color to define the areas that will be die-cut, embossed or UV-coated. Make sure that the spot color objects are placed on top of the RGB images and that they are set to overprint: choose Window → Attributes to open the “Attributes” panel and select “Overprint Fill.”
When you export the document to PDF, the RGB images will convert to CMYK, and all of your spot colors will remain unchanged. I recommend that you check the color separations in Adobe Acrobat to make sure that everything that needs to overprint has been set to “Overprint” (Advanced → Print Production → Output Preview).
The cover of a brochure for a well-known Dutch beer brand. Adobe InDesign’s “Separations Preview” shows the RGB image in CMYK. Scene 2 shows the parts that will be highlighted using a glossy ultraviolet coating. Scene 3 is the part that will be embossed. Scene 4 shows all of the colors combined. (The combined image looks a bit weird because the UV coating and embossed parts have been given a extra spot color so that the printer can keep them separate from the full-color artwork).
10. Share Your PDF Files With Acrobat.com
Now you have but one problem to solve: getting that high-resolution PDF to your client and the printer. Email won’t work because a high-resolution PDF is usually too big. Most printers offer an FTP website, but many clients don’t know how to use FTP. Fortunately, sending out large files is much easier with Acrobat.com, which is a free Web-based service provided by Adobe.
With this incredibly easy and free service, you get your own online storage where you can upload high-resolution PDF files. You can notify your client and printer via email that a PDF is ready to download. And the email even contains a preview of the PDF. If you don’t want Adobe to email your clients, Acrobat.com lets you create a short URL to include in your own email. You can create an online “vault” if you wish, but no log-in or registration is required by default for your client or printer to access the PDF. You can even share PDF files on your website or blog using the embed code provided.
This email is automatically generated when you upload a PDF to Acrobat.com. Feel free to take a look at the PDF file of this brochure (which I’ve downsized to 100 dpi). I’ve shared it on Acrobat.com. Click this link to see it: https://share.acrobat.com/adc/document.do?docid=6ba6d3e1-988e-4452-83bf-2fe036749171
Further Resources
- Adobe ICC profiles (3 RGB and 12 CMYK profiles for worldwide usage)
- ECI Offset 2009 (scroll to ECI Offset 2009)
- Profiles for Newspaper Ads (bottom of the page)
- Introduction to the ICC profile format
All of the color profiles and tricks in this article can be used throughout the entire Creative Suite: 1, 2, 3 and 4. ICC Profiles can be accessed from the following directories:
- Mac OS X: …/Library/ColorSync/Profiles
- Windows: …\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color
Owning a copy of Adobe Acrobat is not necessary, but the application comes in handy when checking the PDF files that you’ve exported from Adobe InDesign. Adobe Acrobat even lets you see which destination profile you have specified in InDesign by choosing Advanced → Print Production → Output Preview. Quark XPress users can use these same ICC profiles.
Keep in mind that experimenting with color can create undesired results if you’re not sure what you’re doing. I highly recommend speaking with your printer before altering your workflow because he won’t be expecting color-optimized artwork if you’ve never bothered to submit it before. Should you have any doubts about the colors in a design, ordering a color proof on paper is always a good idea.
Related posts
You may be interested in the following related posts:
- Switch From Print To Web: Where To Start?
- The Ultimate Round-Up of Print Design Tutorials
- Creative Print Typography Layouts
- Award-Winning Newspaper Designs
(Illustrations by Frank De Man.)
(al)
JB
October 29th, 2009 4:51 amSorry, but I’m a print professional in the business for 20 years and the idea that you should work in RGB color-space is absurd. Why would you want to work in a different color-space from the one that you will print with in the end? It make no sense at all. And anyone who believes that “big publishing houses” work this way are clueless as well. Most print workflows involve running some kind of pre-flight software on any .ps or .pdf files that come in. These pre-flight software programs will kick out any files that have RGB in them. And as far as working with psd images, give me a break, why work with a format that someone else might or might not have the software to open and use? PDF and .ps are the only way to go. My company makes the best selling software for the gravure printing industry, and we only accept tiff, .pdf and .ps.
Anthony Liliefeldt
March 17th, 2013 8:19 pmYou have missed the point. RGB is used for the artwork production end and later converted to CMYK since some features of Photoshop are not available in CMYK mode . . . unless there is something that you know and the rest of the graphics industry does not, in that case, never mind . . .
Steve
October 29th, 2009 6:35 amMarco (October 27th, 2009, 8:38 am)
@ Synthetic Tone:
You wrote: Poor representation of the actual printed media”.
Almost every newspaper uses a PDF workflow (at least for incoming ads). As such using ISO newspaper color-profiles to convert your RGB-images to Newspaper CMYK is a great leap forward when you value the color of your artwork. As long as you have a decent monitor and calibrate it, you’ll do quite well in predicting the color of the printed ad.
About the EPS: As long as you deliver a press-ready PDF it won’t matter if you used a PSD or not ;-) The only advantage will be to the user (that is you).
“Is the assumption here that we’re talking about digital printing and not offset?”
@Joe: It does not matter really. Everything gets converted to CMYK-PDF in the end.
I’m confused. In my experience all printing companies require CMYK if you are printing on a traditional press.
@Paul: Please understand all RGB-images get converted to CMYK in the final PDF the printer receives.
How can you be sure of what you’re gonna get if RGB has millions of colors while CMKY has thounsands?
@Breno: Thats where to soft-proofing comes in. InDesign can use the ICC-profile. Perhaps I didn’t make this clear enough in the article. InDesign / Acrobat and Photoshop can soft-proof the CMYK-colors. It will look EXACTLY the same like it would when you actually converted the image to CMYK.
==============================
I think that is where you are missing the entire point. WE KNOW it will be converted to CMYK. The issue isnt whether it will automatically convert to a useable press format, the issue is YOUR COLORS WILL CHANGE and LOOK DIFFERENT. We know it will look exactly the same when it auto converts to cmyk from rgb…the issue is YOU dont know what it will look like before hand, and thus, you need to go back and COLOR CORRECT it.
This entire article is typical of someone who’s never been in the pre-press industry. I worked for 10 years in pre-press. Too many designers only worry about the cool effects InDesign offers and how well it works with all the other Adobe apps. They dont consider the end result of their product, and just hand it off to the printers to “print it out”. True designers work in the same color space as the end result (rgb for web, cmyk for print), and true designers color correct with calibrated monitors in dark rooms. I’m tired of being called “old school”. Its not old school, its the correct school. Much like the 3d artist claiming Poser is just as good as modeling your own character in Maya. LOL.
Steve
October 29th, 2009 6:49 amIts obvious reading many of the comments here from those supporting working in RGB as opposed to CMYK…..they have NO CLUE what an “out of gamut error range” is.
You can view in Photoshop…..
View > Gamut Warning.
Why would CS4 still have a Gamut Warning feature if its ok to print in RGB?? YES< f course you will have some pictures and photos that arent an issue at all. The issue comes to the brightness and richness of certain images. One of the hardest images/photos to print are ones with fire in it, skies, and night scenes with bright lights. You will find they are converted to muddy looking photos if you work in RGB and send off to printer. If you work in RGB, fine….make sure you do check your Gamut often however.
Its just proper technique to work in CMYK for print however. Its not about being an old dog or a young pup. Sometimes, the young pups need to listen to us old dogs because we have gone through the mistakes you are attempting to do right now. We have seen our mistakes in RGB when we forgot to convert a file to CMYK and watched how crappy it came out in the final product, and we had our arse reamed by the client, and then the boss/owner, and then your supervisor.
High Rez Monkey
October 29th, 2009 6:50 amMy Boss says that RGB is for watching Television!!!! Low Rez Monkeys
Amber
October 29th, 2009 6:53 amWow, amazing article. I’m a photographer, web and print designer – and this info just saved me a lot of time and headache. Always nervous to be working on a screen when the images that are actually appearing on a physical medium. Brilliant, thanks Marco!
Belifant
October 29th, 2009 7:55 amSome people just don’t wanna understand the article and many other posts.
NOBODY TALKS ABOUT SENDING RBG TO THE PRINTER!!!
Read the article and the above posts!
And to those who says you should work in the colorspace it’s gonna printed in, well, there’s not only one CMYK colorspace, there the problem already starts, especially if you’re not knowing in the beginning on what it’s gonna printed at the end. What you do then? Just use some CMYK profile, doesn’t matter which one? Ahhh so wrong!
Marco
October 29th, 2009 8:30 am@JB: Can you understand the concept of RGB having more colors than CMYK? When you start doing your corrections in P’shop like cloning, adding / creating / combining artwork, I choose to do this inside the file with the greatest color information, e.g. RGB. I know not every detail will convert to CMYK. I Softproof and see exactly what you would when you convert. I can even print a proof on my calibrated monitor with a FOGRA control-strip if I have my doubts about color.
Afterwards I can choose whatever CMYK I want when I need it. I can go to magazine-CMYK or coated CMYK. It’s all possible. Most of the time I don’t to optimze anything. The ICC-takes care of it.
“the issue is YOUR COLORS WILL CHANGE and LOOK DIFFERENT”
“YOU dont know what it will look like before hand, and thus, you need to go back and COLOR CORRECT it.”
After more than 100 questions I am getting a bit tyred of repeating myselve, but here goes:
I will know exactly what it will look like beforehand. That’s the entire point. (Softproof / Hardproof) Have you not noticed the images in the article? One of the images shows you exactly what an image will look like when printed in a newspaper. This is nothing new here. I’ve worked like this for years in complieance with professional printers worldwide.
I don’t need to color correct. You are fooling yourselve if you think you can do better than an ICC-profile. Yes, you can ‘optimize’ all you want AFTER the CMYK conversion but you’ll mostly change what you see on your screen. For instance; you might not like the black after conversion and decide to up it or change the curve. However! And this is very important: Most of the time it won’t print the way you just “optimized” it. The conversion to CMYK has performed maximum optimization for the specific group of paer and all it’s characteristics already. Adding more to it afterwards will not help you.
“This entire article is typical of someone who’s never been in the pre-press industry.”
Re-read my comment to questions and just look around the web. Technology has evolved. And please: Buy an InDesign or Colormanagement book and turn on the light my friend. (this light will be rgb-based by the way).
Now will an RGB workflow do everything better all of the time? No. But it will do most of your jobs better most of the time and save you a great deal of time.
Because all of you have been so kind I’ve decided to write a follow-up on my own site using a real-life case. I will use my network of other print-professionals and training companies and will add other real-life cases as well. I hope to see you there somewhere next week.
frankenstein
October 29th, 2009 9:02 amI notice a lot of people find it hard to adapt to this RGB workflow, many won’t even hear of it because they were told different back in the old days. Then again they don’t tend to hang out in places like this to get updated on their profession.
and.. isn’t ISO Uncouted now PSO Uncoated? :-p
binocle
October 29th, 2009 9:09 amFinally ^__^
I am really happy to see a big important media talk about the “work in rbg > convert to iso cmyk pdf” process.
I use that for years now but everytime I have to explain why it’s a more logical workflow.
and like #106 Belifant says, nobody talks about sending rgb to the printer, the goal is to convert your final file to a perfect cmyk pdf.
Jen Dale
August 27th, 2012 10:41 pmSame here, Binocle!
Belifant
October 29th, 2009 9:31 am@Marco
I admire your patience!
I hope with your follow up people get a clearer picture of RGB workflow.
But some people just don’t want to learn new things. ( And this is actually not even new!)
Steve
October 29th, 2009 10:31 am@Marco
I don’t need to color correct. You are fooling yourselve if you think you can do better than an ICC-profile. Yes, you can ‘optimize’ all you want AFTER the CMYK conversion but you’ll mostly change what you see on your screen.
=====================
Now I am offended. This is all I need to read to re-affirm you dont know jack about printing and color correction. I saw your website, and your friend’s website about color, and the color is horrible, muted and dirty looking.
You are of the same delusions as some clients where they think “cant you just press a button to do that?” Color correcting is a skill, and there is no way a generic color profile can EVER correct as well as a trained color corrector.
LOL @ this clown.
marco
October 29th, 2009 12:01 pm” and the color is horrible, muted and dirty looking.”
THANK YOU!
Good you noticed my color! The color you find “horrible, muted and dirty looking” is actually the EXACT color value of the standard newspaper. This is EXACTLY my point. You sit behind your monitor ‘tweaking your colors to perfection” but you forget to take into account the color of the paper.
THIS is what ICC-does not forget. White is not white. It can be just as dirty as the color of my site, which is newspaper-white by the way. This affects ALL the colors of your design.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. Your are wrong and impolite, but your reaction helped me explain it.
steven
October 29th, 2009 12:09 pmAs a sculptor I like to use play-doh to build my lost wax cast methods because there is a conversion tool that is available now that makes it “easy” and “better” to do so long as you follow every one of the 17 steps involved to get it right the first time. _ SARCASM.
CMYK is the only way for press. The rest of it is just shiny new ways to sell you things that ultimately all lead back to CMYK.
marco
October 29th, 2009 12:16 pm@frankenstein;
Yes, we now also have PSO uncoated (based up on the Fogra44 data-set). These profiles get better all the time! I discussed this with mr. Henk Gianotten a few weeks ago. (The man who loves fonts so much Linotype named a font after him, lol! This RGB stuff is yesterdays news for him. He’s lightyears ahead of me with RGB/PDF flows and is often called in by printers or designers when something expensive went wrong).
Belifant
October 29th, 2009 1:49 pm@Steven:
CMYK is for printing, and that’s where it belongs! To the print process.
RGB is the way for editing images, CMYK limits your possibilities in editing your image too much.
Just look how many options in Photoshop are grayed out in CMYK mode. You’re missing a some very good features.
Ivan Philipov
October 29th, 2009 4:20 pmMarco, you will have hard time answering anyone’s questions and remarks :) Let me add mine: when you tell people to ditch Photoshop EPS files in favor of PSD format, how did you do that well-known Dutch beer brand layout with UV-spot and emboss plates? And made InDesign understand which is what? Just curious….
Thanks
VA
October 29th, 2009 8:47 pm@val : You know, i think inmates have a similar fear towards soap! You must work in a real magazine to not be able to bend!
@Osjar: You on the other hand seem to know it all. It seems all the mentioned specs and standards pointed out by an entire industry are horseshit and we should all just ignore it.
VA
marco
October 29th, 2009 8:49 pmNo problem, Ivan. The other artwork is an Illustrator .ai sitting on top of the photo. I pasted photoshop’s clipping path in illustrator. (I could have added it i Photoshop but this was made with Creative Suite 1 and it was easier this way). Using native .ai files instead of illustrator EPS has quite a few advantages as well. (I didn’t use any transprancy but that is a big advantage: When you use .ai you can let InDesign do the flattening. If you were to use .eps you need to tell the Illustrator file what transprancy you want in it). The leters have been added on top of the normal letters inside InDesign in the right spotcolor.
I’m off to Germany with my entire company for the next several days so I can’t comment the next few days. (I work for a smashing company, after Berlin, Belgium, Africa (!) we’re going to go party in Germany this weekend! Business is good! I’ll try to whip up a real-life case RGB-PDF workflow where color is quite important when I get back).
Godzilla
October 29th, 2009 9:50 pmOne thing that stands out in the comments of many so-called experts here is the illusion of being able to work in CMYK on a computer. The reality is that it is technically *impossible*. What you see on screen is always RGB (or rather: a subset of RGB, depending on the capabilities of your monitor).
But there are even worse news for the “old school”: Internally, any serious colour-managed program uses CIE L*a*b as a colour space (i.e. a colour model that describes all colours the human eye can see), and there will always be a conversion of colour values from/to RGB via CIE L*a*b (and colour profiles) as soon as a monitor or a printing device is involved. Photoshop does it, InDesign does it, XPress does it, heck, the Corel Product line does it, and even Open Source products like Inkscape, CinePaint or Scribus do it.
Some people posting here seem to think that “working in CMYK” actually means what it seems to say. It doesn’t! It’s an illusion or an emulation, to use a technical term that’s more correct.
Technically you are always operating within different subsets of the CIE L*a*b space that are converted back and forth, but always with CIE L*a*b as the ultimate reference. How colour values are “translated” is up to the colour management and colour profiles, and if you don’t seem to have any colour management set up, your system will use a set of default values.
I am fully aware of the fact that this is all a bit oversimplified, but everyone who thinks he can operate in CMYK mode (*what* CMYK?) has been fooled by the illusion/emulation software vendors have used to hide the technology behind their products. I don’t blame them for doing so, because designers and printing operators should focus on their jobs, not algorithms or physics. On the other hand, comments of “old school” guys remind me of medieval craftsmen who were able to build such impressive buildings like the many cathedrals in Europe without knowing much about mathematics or statics. All they had was experience (“that’s how it always worked”), but no real knowledge. Of course the world has moved since then. The Renaissance witnessed the rise of scientifically trained engineers who eventually enabled humanity to build skyscrapers.
Getting back to the issue discussed here, we have the PDF/X standards for pre-press for a couple of years now. Since PDF/X-3 it is not only possible, but even recommended to use RGB images + colour profiles in PDF files!
As for not using PSD files for PS or PDF export, the only thing I have to say is we’re living in 2009, not 1999. Does anyone really think InDesign, Acrobat, XPress, CorelDraw or Scribus don’t have mechanisms in place to make sure bitmap data are exported according to the PDF/PS specs? Think again!
Bottom line: Medieval craftsmen should continue using their proven methods, because they somehow seem to work (although they actually don’t know why) and they can produce impressive results. But please don’t call those who know better and have provable facts on their side unprofessional. It didn’t work 600 years ago, and it won’t work now.
orangetiki
October 30th, 2009 6:43 am@marco
well if all the writers for smashing magazine treat readers like you did me, I would be amazed that anyone would write here. Trust me “inspiration” magazines online are a dime a dozen.
Also note that the reason for working in CMYK is to match what is on your screen to what gets printed. I know technically it is impossible ( if you don’t know why, read godzilla’s post), but when you work in CMYK in Photoshop daily like I do, I have to work in the channel palettes. Why Because I don’t always print on white. I don’t care what printing profile you have, what little tips and tricks you think you can pull off, you are NOT going to make color matches when your substrate colors change. That’s what i do day in and day out in the print business. Besides the point is if you send an rgb file to a printer, all your profiles aren’t going to mean squat because it isn’t what the printer has. They do the printing. Not you.
Belifant
October 30th, 2009 6:57 am@orangetiki
Nobody, not even Marco is talking about sending RGB to the printer. Not even Marco does that.
But if the printer guy know his stuff, you could send RBG (before doing prepress/graphics, I used to print, I was actually sitting on the RIP and standing next to the machine, so I do know both worlds).
Are you in some special print business that you actually have to work on the channels, and not printing on white? Like clothes printing? I don’t really understand why you have to work in channels daily.
JP
October 30th, 2009 7:50 amSmashing Mag does a great job with their articles. Always well written.
I have to agree with others who who are supporting the CMYK process. Although these days your RGB images won’t be completely ignored by a RIP as they were years ago there is still no better way to control color than to work in CMYK mode if that is going to be your output medium.
I’ve worked 13 years as a designer and art director and there is no way I’m letting software take complete control of my conversions. Color is too important to overlook. When working for online color shift is just something you have to accept and you can rely a little on RGB’s huge gammut but the narrow gammut of CMYK coupled with the increased potential for reproduction accuracy make working in CMYK well worth it.
Obviously a monitor is always going to display in RGB mode! I don’t think any designer promoting the benefits of working in CMYK would think otherwise.
orangetiki
October 30th, 2009 8:06 am@belifant
Actually yes I am in the screen print industry. I usually tweak channels directly because a lot of times I will have to make a single set of screens to print on three different colored shirts. Only the channels palette lets me see exactly how the inks will lay down on the shirt. Also at times esp with photographs certain colors will be out of gamut simply because of the nature of the screens. Rather then try to mask and adjust, it is ten times faster and that much more accurate to go into the channels palette and adjust myslef because JP said it best: there is no way on this green earth that I am letting an algorithm / program adjust my colors.
Honestly, when I see CMYK, I think of outputting. RGB means (to me) that it will never leave the screen. This is where I am pulling my My entire grief with this article is that if you KNOW where the final product is going, why are you changing color schemes or working in a color scheme just to change it later just so it looks better to you. To me it is akin to let me draw all of my artwork with the Pantone palette and then just print it to a desktop printer and demand that all my colors match. That to me screams inexperience and the arrogance of the author here just set me off. I don’t want to flame and please excuse me if I seem to be.
Jables
October 30th, 2009 8:16 amAll I have to say is this is great. But I agree with most of the people posting here. CMYK is the medium used worldwide. There may be new astonishing technology and some great printers out there. But at what cost?
When you work in a business like mine which is mass production of merchandise and product packaging across the globe your Marketing/Finance Director is always going to go down the cheapest road possible. That cuts out all the new fancy equipment leaving you with a very limited range.
So CMYK is always the safest way to go. Also I would like to say that using the Adobe.com website to upload large files sounds great if you are a free-lance graphic designer but again in the business that most people are in they are not exactly going to share all of their files with the world especially if there are copyrights in the mix.
Another point to add to that is Printers, especially when producing large amounts of product packaging (in my case), always want the smallest files possible that are print ready with the proper score marks, die dimensions, crops and color profiles. If you give them a BEEFY RGB PSD file attached to your InDesign document, with CMYK color profiles they are just going to laugh and say send us a clipped .eps file or vector work please that is properly converted in CMYK.
So again while this is innovation the world could use, the print world is not ready for something like this yet, at least not on a mass scale. Except maybe a short-run printer. Most money making printers in this country or the next print on a large scale…even if they offer short-run printing, they make their money on CMYK and it will be like that for the next 10 years at least.
Sign me up though when you create a cheap effective way to send large BEEFY PSD files without compromising your own artwork or your company’s copyrights while at the same time printing these files on a mass production scale on some fantastic press machines without pre-press complaining about size and compatibility. :)
Kevin Muldoon
October 30th, 2009 8:52 amExcellent job. I’m a prepress guy and an ICC Color Management consultant for many years. Working in CMYK is one of the most dangerous things designers can do when working with image files.
This article does not recommend keeping your images in RGB but says to convert to CMYK with the appropriate ICC Profile. The profile will automatically set your TAC, TVI and proper black generation. Working files after CMYK conversion often results in bad separations which makes your job difficult or impossible to print properly.
VA
October 30th, 2009 9:17 amIt is sad to realize that the community i work in and belong to cannot respect, sustain or communicate with itself. And yet it excels in doing so for clients in its daily business!
VA
October 30th, 2009 9:36 amMan, i don’t get it! Are we suppose to be designers or color scientists?
I should only have to know as far as the tools needed for my trade require me to know… hã?!
Well I started working in 1997, so i suppose i should be an old dog. Back then a designer should know color management because our tools could not communicate with the printer tools, thus we could not communicate with the printer! And we even used to hire prepress services to establish the bridge!
My concern was to get something pretty on a mockup show it to the client and then make sure the printer could do it.
This was where the problem began. The printer would then tell me to go back and tweek the end result to meet his needs. I new than that if i would comply to his demands he could print the job accordingly. This was a long and error prone process, not to mention expensive!
So we as an industry all came together and said, there has to be a better way.
So designers and printers and prepress gurus all put their thoughts on the table and along came ICC profiles and Color Management Systems and all the other things like PDFx and so on!
I give thanks to it every day, for my life changed a lot since.
I’m assuming we all read this book!
So life goes on and there will always be those who feel they have been left behind. They can wine and bitch about it or they can catch up!
These days all i have to do is a phone call, ask a printer if they support and comply to PDFx and what ICC should i use for a given stock or printing machine and that would be it. Should the answer be negative or “what?” I ditch the printer. As simple as that. There are no shortage of printers and if they cannot comply with the basic they should catch up.
Godzilla
October 30th, 2009 10:31 amJP said: “I’ve worked 13 years as a designer and art director and there is no way I’m letting software take complete control of my conversions.”
orangetiki paraphrases JP: “there is no way on this green earth that I am letting an algorithm / program adjust my colors.”
Guys, you are fooling yourself. Algorithms already *do* adjust your colours, otherwise you couldn’t do anything with Photoshop & Co. As I wrote there is a constant conversion from RGB to CIE L*a*b to RGB (or RGB that emulates CMYK, which is just another conversion done by software). In other words, you trust algorithms you don’t understand, but you have (like mediaeval craftsmen) somehow learned to predict the results, mostly by experience. Along comes a new, more sophisticated technology that you don’t understand either, but since you haven’t (yet) learned to predict the results (i.e. lack of experience), you reject it. Fine with me, as long as you can satisfy your customers. But please don’t bash the author of the article as clueless simply because he has a better understanding of the technology.
Godzilla
October 30th, 2009 1:35 pmFor those who understand German, here’s an interesting article on RGB vs. CMYK editing in the Swiss “Publisher” magazine (and for those who don’t, at least some of the images speak for themselves):
http://www.publisher.ch/dynpg/upload/imgfile1062.pdf
Belifant
October 30th, 2009 2:08 pm@orangetiki
Ah ok, interesting, not very familiar on that kind of printing, so I won’t say anything, even tough if I’d look into it, I might show how it could be done in RGB. For example just as an idea, if you’d create a custom CMYK ICC Profile, which includes also the background color, you could work in RGB on your image, and with activated softproof with that CMYK profile, you’d see exactly how the colors will behave in the printing process!
But ok, just a suggestion, maybe in your case it is necessary to work directly in the CMYK channels, but you should have a look at it.
But when you say you should work in the colorspace it is outputed, couldn’t it also make sense to say, you should do your work in the colorspace the image was created, as it’s the original colorspace where everything is untouched yet. Then, when you are done, you convert to CMYK, maybe make some minor adjustments, send to printer.
@Jables
You misunderstood the whole concept of RGB. The goal is also in RBG workflow, to deliver a perfect CYMK PDF/X for printing (usually PDF)
@VA, Kevin Muldoon, Godzilla
Absolutely correct!
Before ICC and Colormanagment, doing colorcorrection and printing was trial and error!
If you have a perfect Colormanagment setup, you can do your whole work you do in Photoshop in RBG, until it looks good on your screen, send it to your printer, and the printed image will look exactly the same as on your Screen, without doing any correction!
That what we’re aiming for, and that’s what everybody should aim for!
So also the CMYK guys should agree with that, unless you wanna make your own life just unnecessary complicated. I really recommend to have a look at it, maybe do a course, cause RBG workflow is what’s teached today, not by some kiddies, by some of the most respected and experienced people in the industrie.
Belifant
October 30th, 2009 2:37 pm@Godzilla:
The authors of these article were my teachers, they taught me all the Colormanagement / ICC / RGB stuff :-)
Godzilla
October 30th, 2009 3:55 pmJables said: “Another point to add to that is Printers, especially when producing large amounts of product packaging (in my case), always want the smallest files possible that are print ready with the proper score marks, die dimensions, crops and color profiles. If you give them a BEEFY RGB PSD file attached to your InDesign document, with CMYK color profiles they are just going to laugh and say send us a clipped .eps file or vector work please that is properly converted in CMYK.”
Sir, where have you been living during the last decade? The latest EPS version (specifiation) has been released in 1992! That’s an eternity in today’s technological environment. The format may still have some value, especially for file exchange, but it’s yesterday’s technology. Also, hardly anyone would send a .indd file alongside a “beefy” PSD file to a printer. Why would you do that? It’s almost asking for trouble, as you can’t be sure that the printer will have the same version of InDesign and the same plug-ins installed. Instead you send a PDF. InDesign or Acrobat will embed a flattened 8bit raster image in the PDF. You an even choose different levels of compression for images. Moreover, if you have a huge PSD file, it will be much bigger in CMYK, as it has to store 4 colour channels instead of three. It’s almost certain that an RGB file + ICC profile will be smaller.
Godzilla
October 30th, 2009 4:02 pmJables aid: “There may be new astonishing technology and some great printers out there.”
The PDF/X-3 standard has been published in 2002, so it’s a bit of a stretch to call it “new astonishing technology.” The latest PDF/X version is X-5, published in 2008.
Kevin Muldoon
October 30th, 2009 4:39 pmConsider a process mix of Pantone 348C. Lets say it’s important to hit the color because it’s the logo of a big client. If you’re going to a press that recommends using US Sheetfed Coated v2, then 100,15, 98, 5 will be your closest match. If you’re going to publication running #5 Coated stock, that logo needs to be 100,23,100,11. If on the other hand, if you’re sending to newsprint, 85,15,96,10 is the proper separation to approximate PMS348C.
A single set of CMYK numbers cannot have same color value when sent to different printing conditions. This unavoidable fact is the whole reason ICC Color Management was invented and RGB color work flows are so important.
For more information about ICC Profiles and how to use them effectively, the bible of color management can be found here.
http://www.colorremedies.com/realworldcolor/
Godzilla
October 30th, 2009 7:30 pmorangetiki said: “Besides the point is if you send an rgb file to a printer, all your profiles aren’t going to mean squat because it isn’t what the printer has. They do the printing. Not you.”
You don’t seem to understand what a fully colour managed workflow means. It means you’re working with reliable device profiles from the beginning (i.e. monitor, scanner, camera etc.) to the end (the printing device), so that the software involved knows how to convert colours for each device in the process.
Your dictum “because it isn’t what the printer has” is pointless in a colour managed workflow, as the printer will either standardise his equipment to conform to a standard profile or create his own device-specific profiles. For the former choice its even possible to get a certification.
jack parsons
October 31st, 2009 5:52 am@VA
“These days all i have to do is a phone call, ask a printer if they support and comply to PDFx and what ICC should i use for a given stock or printing machine and that would be it. Should the answer be negative or “what?” I ditch the printer. As simple as that. There are no shortage of printers and if they cannot comply with the basic they should catch up.”
What a wonderful system you have in which you can dictate the use of printers to your clients. Good for you. Suppose it didn’t occur to you that many clients have standing contracts and relationships with printers that the monkey with Photoshop isn’t going to stand in the way of.
Is this more “whining and bitching”, as you called it? Stay classy, baby.
Godzilla
October 31st, 2009 10:06 pm@ jack parsons:
In a sense you are right. Its perfectly understandable that in some workflows the designer is caught between a rock and a hard place, the most likely scenario being a contract between a client and a printer with outdated technology but experienced personell that knows how to work around the shortcomings of the current equipment.
Buying new hardware and adjusting to new technology is disruptive and expensive, hence, many, if not most printing companies stick to their workflows and their devices until change becomes inevitable. This is perfectly understandable. It’s also understandable that people who know by experience how to tweak colours in a way that mysteriously meets the needs of their clients (and I carefully chose the word mysteriously, because, as I’ve shown above, they are not aware of the technology behind it). Sometimes, this fiddling with colour values reminds me of not only feeding punch cards to a computer, but also of creating punch cards with the help of a screw driver at a time when no current computer can read punch cards anymore, and even floppy drives begin to look like ancient technology.
Chris
October 31st, 2009 11:46 pmWow,
why couldn`t you write this article one week earlier – than I could have been posing in college the hole day ;). We just had this stuff last week… very interesting! By the way, nice cartoons on the bottom ;)
marco
November 1st, 2009 12:26 am(Just got back from Germany, the land of FOGRA, the color-experts). Some very good comments have been added. Just to reply to the last few:
And here we go to the core of the discussion: Using a true colormanagement-workflow and ISO-certifed is scary stuff for a printer. Because now the endresult can be measured using the control-strips. The Delta-E (or ‘how much the printer missed the average color’) is visable for everyone.
My client isn’t really aware of all this. He just cares about his own colors. He wants the colors of his products or brochures:
1. To have the maximum color-power.
2. To match as closely as possible no matter what paper he selects.
3. To match as closely as possible even if he decides to select another printer (or designer agency!).
This is what color-management can provide.
Regarding my treatment of you, Orangetiki: You comment without either reading or understanding the artcile. Somehow you do judge it’s content and declare ‘I have shaken your faith in Smashing Magazine’. I feel this kind or comment demanded a reponse like the one I gave you: “please remain a silent reader or read the entire article before commenting. No one speaks of sending an RGB file to a printer.”
As anyone can see I respond with great detail to anyone having a questions, doubts or an open mind.
VA
November 1st, 2009 12:05 pm@ jack parsons
Ok man, let’s keep it classy!
We can generalize or we be specific. I can’t really be specific here for obvious reasons but as a general rule of thumb the first thing i say to a client that imposes his printer is that i cannot vouch for the end result. Usually the client doesn’t have a clue of what i’m saying so i try to simplify as much as i can the process or workflow and explain it to him that if a printer cannot comply to the standards, the results can be unpredictable and i cannot vouch for it. If he is ok with it, than we have a go, if not someone has to give. I usually ad that if we are to have a guaranteed quality than i need to work with trusted printers.
So far all have understood my point and signed to both solutions.
VA
November 1st, 2009 12:12 pmOne more thing, @ jack parsons
With ICC profiles and PDF workflow, usually the client sees the same color as i do on my screen. So every soft or hard proof is certified. If the end result is off, than it is obvious who screwed up.
Let me tell you that so far only one printer in Portugal told me he didn’t have a clue about ICC or pdf. At the time, and this was 2006, i worked around him now i can’t work with nor around him because his out of business, so i really thought that this working method was really settled in the industry, and that only Portugal was behind, apparently i was wrong.
Godzilla
November 1st, 2009 8:08 pm@marco:
“No one speaks of sending an RGB file to a printer.”
I, for one, do, but I don’t say this will work all the time. In a fully compliant PDF/X-3+ workflow it’s even recommended to provide RGB colours plus ICC profiles (a PDF/X-3 file without included CMS settings doesn’t conform to the spec and is defective). The CMYK conversion will be done by a PDF/X-3-conformant RIP. If the workflow is properly set up, this is far more reliable than any tinkering with emulated C, M, Y, and K channels.
Marco
November 1st, 2009 11:32 pm@ Godzilla: 100% correct. But I felt sending out an RGB document and CMYK PDF file would be a great leap foreward already ;-) I spoke with Dov Isaacs from Adobe quite some time ago in Amsterdam and an RGB PDF with icc-profiles, layers, transparancy and JDF is what they’re aming for. The printer can select the best cmyk-profile for the job.
Right now I still comply to the Certified PDF norm (a.k. pdf 1.3, no layers, no transprancy, no icc tags).
wien
November 2nd, 2009 1:01 amvery helpful post, thanks
orangetiki
November 2nd, 2009 11:02 amMy replies.
1) i did read this article as much as marco tries to insist that I didn’t.
2) when I said “shake my faith”, i did mean it as a joke. Maybe what you wrote took me by the foundations of what I know and shook them. so I apologize for that
3) In my experience if you are not working in the SAME color profile that is intended to print (you know, what my first post eludes to) you will not get the same results as you see. There are issues such as running outside of the color gamut and actual printing methods. So saying hey work in rgb or anything you want because it doesn’t matter you might as well be saying the sky is falling.
What if you did use a color that is out of the printing methods’ reach? then what? Your article didn’t have the backing up or the proof that everything will work. You are assuming printing techniques and substrates.
Then again as I said I do print on a lot of different items such as clothing, nylons, etc. Sometimes unfortunately there is no color profile for an orange tee shirt
4) Godzilla did hit the nail on the head that I didn’t mention: I was trained old school. VERY old school. My first art director worked with one of the first companies to coin the phrase Clip Art ( Harry Volk’s Clipbooks of line art ) and I learned from there.
5)Sure no one knows everything but @marco’s reply was still out of turn. First thing you NEVER do is insult your readers.
Marco
November 2nd, 2009 12:02 pm@orangetiki: Thanks for the professional response, I appreciate it and this is a good comment I can work with. (I didn’t understand your first remark was a joke). I try to help people out in the comments, but there are always people popping up because they’re somehow insulted or feel threatened. I mistook you for one at first. As the conversation progressed I noticed you’re a pro as well, but in a different kind of profession. I did some screen-printing back in the day and I loved it. I’ve even interviewed a Belgium Screensprinter. I spend almost 3.000 word explaining all the screenprinting-details. (In Dutch but check out the photo’s: http://tinyurl.com/y8qut9t )
As you know the article I wrote can’t contain every step of the way as it’s already very long. I do cover all the basics and try to show the way. It was because you wrote “Send an RGB file to a printer ” that I took for granted you had not read the article completely and just ‘fired a few remarks in the comments’.
Regarding your questions in he last comment: “So saying hey work in rgb or anything you want because it doesn’t matter” Well thats not exactly what said. I do mention using RGB for the most common different kinds of paper. (not t-shirts or other kinds of materials). I also specify the most common kinds of paper, like: Coated, Uncoated, newspaper and Magazine.
“What if you did use a color that is out of the printing methods’ reach” Well that is why the standard ISO profiles are so important. Every sort of paper and printing-process (coated, uncoated, offset and so on) has been tested to the extreme. (The every extreme!) As such the behavior of the colors can be predicted within certain limits. These limits are defined inside a data-set and a accompanying control strip can let the printer measure his own color and how much he is ‘off’ (or not).
Godzilla
November 2nd, 2009 2:59 pm@ orangetiki:
“What if you did use a color that is out of the printing methods’ reach?”
Google for “rendering intent.”
jysta
November 6th, 2009 3:09 amWow, controversial article. An interesting concept for sure. I will try this method.
I would always recommend people soft proof their final PDF’s in Acrobat Pro afterwards by going to: Advanced > Output Preview. This always gives me a very accurate view of how everything looks when printed.
I have printed in RGB before for large-scale photo’s and digital print and have seen some great results. I like the fact all colour conversion is done at a single point, and should yield consistent results.
But…
1) If things don’t look right and you need to make adjustments to the colour of the images surely making these in a CMYK colour space is much easier (and logical)?
2) Also what about ICL? (Ink Coverage Limits?) These cannot be accounted for in RGB and if converting to CMYK profile in InDesign cannot be set (as far as I am aware).
3) Also particularly for blacks a RGB to CYMK conversion tends to create messy blacks (C:46 M:60 Y:58 K:40) which can give nasty results to your images. The only way to ensure a nice rich black is to create it in CMYK (C:40 K:100). A messy black could also cause headaches if you wanted white text on dark areas, by ensuring only 2 plates are hit you get crisper more readable text.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to bash this article in any way and the ability to have a single set of images to use cross-media is great. I just think people need to think each project through before committing to a particular workflow and the above issues are just a few things that spring to mind when considering this article especially for offset printing.
Brian
November 6th, 2009 8:26 amI can’t thank you enough for this article. I was having problems with my images turning out dark with a particular digital print system because I was converting images to CMYK in Photoshop, then exporting to PDF.
I just got back several jobs where I used the RGB .tiff and .psd files in the InDesign document, and let the Press Quality PDF do the conversions. The colors are identical now. Phew.
Godzilla
November 6th, 2009 9:09 pm@jysta:
Interesting points.
ad 1) It seems logical, but technically it isn’t. Many people think adjusting the C, M, Y or K channel is the same as somehow manipulating the printing machine itself. That’s not true. Many people have accumulated experience that allows them to produce more or less predictable results by converting images to CMYK and working on the respective colour channels. Other people know where to kick when the motor of their car refuses to start.
ad 2) You mentioned Acrobat, but not plug-ins like PitStop. In a colour-managed PostScript or PDF workflow you have more, not less options to handle ink coverage. Also, and this is a very basic example, an ICC profile for newspaper printing contains ink coverage data which are quite different from those for printing on coated paper.
ad 3) Black is always an issue, agreed, but manipulating Black/K in an image adds several layers of points of failure (see, e.g.: http://littlecms2.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-in-black.html and http://littlecms2.blogspot.com/2009/08/black-is-black-ii.html). There are mechanisms in place to control the issue, and if you are working with solid colours, creating a rich or warm black in CMYK mode is always an option, provided you _and_ your printer know what you’re doing.
Marco
November 7th, 2009 12:38 pmGood questions. CMYK optimizer is used by a lot of printers (often without the knowledge of graphic designers). This allows printers to change the CMYK values, TAC, UCR, etc. to better match their needs or paper. Pistop is ‘the mother of al pdf-editors’ (review of ’09 on my site) and ‘PDF Standardizer’ can also adjust color values and convert to other ICC profiles.
Regarding black: I never use ICC-profiles for logo’s and other vector-based (logo- or identity) elements. They would indeed convert to full-color black because of the cmyk-to-cmyk conversion in profile when exporting…
@Godzilla: Thanks for the links!
Ravi Jasra
November 19th, 2009 7:18 amVery interesting…. new approach…must give it a try…… Ravi
David Blatner
November 19th, 2009 10:02 amReading some of these comments made me feel I was back in 2001 or something! The RGB workflow has been reliable and robust and in use by far more publications than you might realize over the past decade. InDesign just makes it easier than ever. Yes, there are reasons to convert to CMYK first, but in most publications, RGB makes more sense.
I made a few more comments on this blog post at InDesignSecrets: http://indesignsecrets.com/this-week-in-indesign-articles-number-14.php#comment-479684
(That’s not meant as spam; I just didn’t want to repeat it all again here.)
Thanks,
David Blatner
co-author “Real World Photoshop”, “Real World InDesign” and others
Bert Vanderveen
November 28th, 2009 6:19 amFWIW: A really good reason to have a RGB-workflow is that there is an increasing chance that the printing may be NOT done in pure CMYK… How about Hexachrome or similar 5 and 6 colour systems. Not to mention developments with enhanced inks.
And in response to a lot of comments that state that one cannot do CMYK-corrections on a RGB-image: CMYK and RGB are complementary. If you have ever worked with old-fashioned scanners (or, god forbid, had to work with separate filters on a stat camera) you may have noticed that the colour-filters used are red, blue and green. And lo-behold. look at the Color Balance sliders in PhotoShop: Cyan to Red, Magenta to Green, Yellow to Blue. Have the Adobe-engineers gone mad? Or do they in fact have a basic knowledge of how colour works? I know the answer…
Eric
January 4th, 2010 10:41 pmTo me this article/thread sums up how screwed up some art creators can be and how simple CM assumptions are dangerous. I manage prepress for clients like Nike, Columbia Sportswear, Weiden+Kennedy, etc. and they understand this vital link to success. All their native art (PS, INDD, Ill) is supplied to the printer in one common color space, GRACoL. It’s the one color space most good North American offset printers are adopting as their own
Personally I’m fine with creating art in RGB at first for maximum color depth but then always saving out from its native app as GRACoL. It cuts out any possibility for error.
We are not in an age yet where a singular file (PDF) can be supplied without worry of last minute correction cycles. Besides its unrealistic to think there won’t be at least one round of corrections before final approval.
PDFs to me are great for FPO proofs unless a client states thats the only option.
But remember when metal is spinning on a $500-600 an hour press its an ugly place to be when something wrong is discovered on a press check and you realize you cant make that change with the supplied PDF that was used.
I’ve had too many over-simplistic theories (and its obvious when reading this thread) as to how to handle color and time and time again their model keeps changing when it actually comes to churning the job through on time with desired results. Today’s print market doesn’t always allow for that extra 3 hours of custom prepress work and designers for the most part won’t supply the necessary information regarding how to handle their job let alone hard copy.
I’m well aware of up front color servers like Alwan and I know they can be a great tool especially in its handling on RGB conversion. But like someone who earlier commented, what happens when you’re asked to make a particular color move while the pressman are waiting for new plates. A needed custom 10% Magenta cutback isn’t just that when the dvl is always rebalancing the color.
Uwe Meier
January 26th, 2010 4:29 pmRegarding your questions in he last comment: “So saying hey work in rgb or anything you want because it doesn’t matter” Well thats not exactly what said. I do mention using RGB for the most common different kinds of paper. (not t-shirts or other kinds of materials). I also specify the most common kinds of paper, like: Coated, Uncoated, newspaper and Magazine.
http://www.eusb.de/view.php?filename=43gts_00003.jpg
Marco
February 15th, 2010 11:41 amIt’s been a while since I stopped by to read the comments, but Eric’s remarks require a reply. You know Eric, I never need to do color adjustments like ‘custom 10% magenta cutback at the press’. If you’ve supplied a file that requires this you’re basically screwed. Color management done right can prevent last minute changes.
Also, this part of your comment contains a false assumption:” It’s the one color space most good North American offset printers are adopting as their own”. One of the most important parts of color management is the fact that there is no ‘one-cmyk-color-space’. There’s one for *every* kind of paper; coated, uncoated, newspaper etc. Sending everything out “optimized for standard coated” will result in non-optimized colors as the paper works with the ink.
Where color is most critical (usually food and or clothes) we send out certified colorproofs. When a control strip is printed next to the artwork everyone can rest a sure there won’t be any last-minute press color changes.
good news by the way: The US is catching up and is setting up an audit & certify program with ISO 125647 standard. More info here: Welcome to the ‘Certified Color’ Party America! http://tinyurl.com/ycs75yj You know one of the good things about Europe is we’ve had to come up with a standard as we are so diverse.
Oh, nice client list. I work for clients like Pepsico, Nestlé (Mars, Kit-Kat), L’Oreal and may others. Color is very important for them as well…
godzilla
February 16th, 2010 6:56 pm@ Eric:
GRACoL is _not_ a colour space. It’s a set of data included in an ICC profile. Saying “I don’t use RGB, but only GRACoL” is not even comparing apples and oranges, it’s comparing apples and cars ;)
Valduc
March 4th, 2010 5:50 pmLittle remark:
If you have a calibrated monitor (I use Apple Cinema Display) and a Mac with Snow Leopard, then you see your work in LWF Gamma 2.2.
harryposter
April 14th, 2010 6:37 amSome food for thought:
I have been a graphic designer working in the print industry (be it newspapers, magazines, brochures, you name it) for 25 years now, so I guess I could be one of the old dogs mentioned in the comments above.
At the moment, I work a lot for clients who have supplements, special reports and so on… published in The Times or other papers, thus using the appropriate ISOnewspaper26v4 ICC profile in that case.
The Times guidelines and instructions for using their ICC profile are very clear: “ALWAYS work on your images, colour correct them etc. in RGB mode, then convert them to CMYK only at the very end of the workflow, when you are 100% happy with the result. NEVER do any alteration to a CMYK image once the ICC profile has been applied to it.”
This is coming from the guys at The Times, and I don’t think anyone (including the self-proclaimed old dogs) can suspect them of being a bunch of unprofessional or clueless amateurish people compared to the rest of the print industry which some gurus here claim to be a part of…
I also have to check that all artworks sent by the clients advertising in the supplements comply to The Times specifications which they are sent beforehand. Most of the time these artworks come from so-called established and professional design and advertising agencies…
I insist on ‘so-called’ as in 90% of cases, they consistently get it wrong and guess what happens: I have to convert the artwork of these CMYK ‘purists’ back to RGB in order to have the correct ICC profile applied so it can get properly printed.
Of course I don’t get paid for the extra work I have to do to fix their mess, but it would take me more time to explain these ‘professionals’ how to do it properly rather than doing it myself…
And you would be amazed if I told you who these incompetent agencies are, believe me!
Though not as experienced as I am, Marco is 100% right: RGB workflow (with soft proof activated) is the way to go. At the end of the day, ICC profiles haven’t been invented just for fun and everything gets delivered to the printers in a state-of-the art CMYK respecting their specs to the letter, when properly used.
On the opposite, fiddling with images in CMYK during the workflow is asking for trouble, and always an accident waiting to happen.
Marco
April 20th, 2010 11:45 am@harryposter: Thank you for the detailed insights!
FC
May 15th, 2010 12:25 amWow, there are so many dinosaurs posting on this page…anyone still using CMYY for images, whether in Quark, InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop, are quite frankly burying their collective heads in the sand. Move on.
If you don’t know by now why you should be doing it (RGB image workflow), think very hard about whether you are truly qualified to play with color at all. Seriously, that is how backwards the “CMYK is better than RGB” argument has become. Ten years ago, I would have agreed with some of the comments on this blog.
Look up Dov Isaacs sometime, and read his mantra about keeping ALL files at the highest level of abstraction. He should know; he is the principal scientist from Adobe for PDF; better known as the godfather of PDF.
And before you ask, our company was the first magazine publisher in the world to go 100% RGB image workflow, and it scares the living you know what’s out of me thinking of the CMYK only days.
Please don’t confuse primary colors (C, M, Y, and K) in vectors; ie pure colours that are not meant to be converted to any profile, versus bitmap images that MUST be converted to the correct profile. As for softproofing, how else are you editing your files if you are not doing so with the output intent in mind. That is why hard wired CMYK number in an image are a complete nonsense when you are correcting it, if you are not simulating the destination.
How many people still use SWOP, or Chromalin on this thread? Ouch for you if you still do.
Q4
May 23rd, 2010 9:04 pmThe way I work is I first clean up an image in adobe RGB.
Then turn on proof colors and use masked adjustment layers to desaturate and curve out any gamut problems. Group those together and label according to the destination profile. Depending on project there might be fixes for 2-4 profiles per psd. None-destructive, and if you happen to need to make EPS files for any reason you can just batch with convert profile and toggle visibility on the desired adjustments group while getting a coffee refill.
That’s how I do it anyway…
With almost any CMYK profile you will need to do some fixing to avoid gamut problems. You can leave the actual conversion to the app that’s exporting the PDF, but you sure as hell need to fix it before or you will have fun results, especially with the ISOnewspaper26v4.
Xevi
July 20th, 2010 8:37 amIn my classes about how to prepare the PDFs we are working with the reading of this article, this is a very good point, thank you very mutch!
The Beatles
November 19th, 2010 10:59 amHmm,
i’d have to say that working in RGB is great. I would however disagree that making any changes in CMYK is asking for trouble.
First many are pointing to other companies on how they work and their workflow. Thats great, it works for their particular paper, TAC limitations and imagery. However, if you’ve ever tapped into the power of using calculations to customize your black plate and do specialized color separations, then of course you use CMYK, and you most definitely dont let indesign do your conversions. Sure for a lot of projects its fine, but if you need to control the process for every images, its not the way to go.
Just because this workflow works for some people doesnt mean its the best. And just because this is a new way to work (which it isnt, people have been working in RGB for years) doesnt mean that other methods shouldnt be used.
Simply put, calculations can control the black plate giving you tight control of your color separations. You do this in the CMYK mode. I do work in RGB but i definitely dont just blindly let Indesign do the conversion.
For the most of my work, i would say however that RGB and a good conversion is all one needs. However I always want to look at the results and adjust. Maybe add contrast. Pop the highlights because I know the paper isnt very bright. Take a bit of yellow out of the 1/4 tones.
Good luck everyone.
The beatles.
Jaki H
January 21st, 2012 9:06 pmThank you so much, If I did not find this I don’t think I could have met my deadline. Color management I get!
Before reading this I was using CMYK and even with all of my color management tricks (device calibration, using bridge, placing psd files, etc) my colors were still not matching when exported. Now they do!
Hank Scorpio
July 22nd, 2012 9:13 pmI just saw this article today, in 2012, and I have to say most of it is pure rubbish. Particularly the one of dumping EPS for PSD – that’s a ridiculous piece of advice. What it should be is dumping EPS and using PDF instead! Well if you have no vector elements at all, then PSD or TIFF is perfectly fine and better than EPS, but if your photoshop file contains vectors then PDF is definitely the better option.
Very poor advice, I expect better from Smashing…
Jeremy
August 7th, 2012 3:08 pmI think most people here know they are not seeing CMYK on the screen but i can say anytime I convert something from RGB to CMYK I notice fine detail changes in the shadows and sometimes banding problems in gradient areas. Although you are still seeing it in RGB there is still a significant difference in color shifting of vibrant colors. I have job security because of articles like this as I get artwork in all day long from fancy shmancy firms that is all mucked up like this and like it or not most of the printers I work with all over the country will refuse the art with RGB files linked. Maybe they are “old school” but I get back what I am expecting from them. Interesting article but I just don’t have enough faith in the auto conversion to trust the results.
Danya
April 17th, 2013 6:27 pmShould I still be exporting as pdfx1a? It seems that most paper prints I get back nowadays are way too dark. The thing is, a reasonable percentage, including large format prints (banners/billboards/vehicle wraps) are PERFECT using the same export settings. I am at my wits end trying to get a decent print these days. Am I the only one?
Gus
April 24th, 2013 6:59 pmRemember black is a color too. Working in RGB to edit a photo before converting to grayscale is the only way to go. You have so many more options.
I am old school been in this business for 45 years. Remember two things are certain: death and change. All you guys need to reread step number 8 and find out from your printer which profile they use for the paper your job will print on. Some of you may even need to read it out load as so many comments skipped many need to know procedures. I know, it’s too simple for a “designer” but the printer knows his equipment so follow his lead and don’t second guess him.
Gus
April 24th, 2013 9:03 pmOh, by the way, did I mention that working in RGB gives you more options for CMYK too? The conversion to either grayscale or CMYK works for us.