Screen appearance could be the result of any number of things, for print colours you should be able to trust what you put in, if a PMS or cmyk is not printing properly that is probably because it is incorrectly specified or an element is not correctly profiled. Can you be more specific about your press problem? Which software are you using to create your artwork, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop? Is it in the creation of pdfs?

Tim

I was recently working in CS1 and had a good system.

I ran ColorSync and every App on a Colormatch 1.8 Gamma profile, and used the US Coated CMYK for typical workflow.

I would start by making a profile of my monitor with the Spyder, and use that profile for the auto screen adjustment in Quark, Indy etc.

In addition I had an IT8 callibrated software for my printer, and a third party software for my proofer/RIP.

I was letting the third party RIP handle the seps and color, and making my RGB color correction in Photoshop in the native 1.8 Gamma.

I was having good consistent color using a Mitsu Diamond Pro 2070.

Now I’m CS3 and I’m having to work through it all again. Hope that helps a little.

This PDF explains how to set-up a workflow in CS 2. It might be usable in general for you CS 1 also.

In general the monitors can be calibrated using a colorimeter for the screen. These are not too expensive, and easy to use. The big problem is the environment your are working in. It should be in total darkness, or illuminated exclusively by Normlicht that matches the chosen colour temperature of the monitor calibration.

Scanners can also be calibrated using a special scan-target and special scanner software that reads the target values, knows what they should be, and generates a ICC-profile for that scanner.

The most complicated situation is the printing situation. Some printers have a build in colorimeter that can scan a print of test swatches and create an ICC-profile for the combination of print-heads, ink-cartridges, paper/substrate, temperature, and humidity. I have one of those, and you can match your output very very close to eg. EuroScale CMYK and also a lot of PMS colours outside the CMYK gamut, but it only works when viewed in normlicht, in other lighting conditions the characteristics of the ink and substrate doesn’t longer compare to, say, EuroScale if that was the case.

Some RIP-software to control this nightmare is of course required. Same goes for the very expensive Xerox laserprinters who often use an external Fiery RIP to do the colour control.

In CS (any) you have the luxury of being able to do a mixed RGB and CMYK workflow. What I do is keep all colour scans and photos in RGB mode. All logos and elements that need EuroScale CMYK matching are in EuroScale CMYK. When the elements are combined in an InDesign document, you are ensured maximum quality no matter what kind of output method you choose. Say if a document is printed in EuroScale then I make a PDF:X-1a for EuroScale, all elements not all ready tagged with this profile is converted in the PDF conversion to take advantage of the full gamut of the output method. Now say the client wants to have the same document as a colour ad in the newspaper, then I just go to the newspapers website and download their ICC-profile for their headset rotation press, choose it in when I output the PDF:X-1a and all ink limits, and so on are used to the full gamut. It’s a real timesaver and you will be sure to always deliver 100% perfect material to the printer in question.

The problem with leaving your photos in RGB is that there are a lot of colors that are out of the CMYK gamut. Obvious things that die in the conversion are blue skies, glowing reds and greens, etc… I prefer to convert as the last step before placing in ID - although sometimes after I convert I find that I need to color correct just a little more. The document is going to be converted either way - I’d much rather see it before I finalize.

What I see in newspapers in America (I do a lot of newsprint) is that the photos need to be sharper and have more contrast than something going to a magazine - something a conversion is not going to give you.

Ultimately it sounds like your monitor isn’t calibrated correctly. Do that and always use Bridge to change color spaces, that way your programs are in synch.

Printing color is an art, not a science and color management has not delivered the magic bullet (at least in the US). You do want to use it though since it’s as close as we get to a standard.

Best of Luck!

pbc

The problem with leaving your photos in RGB is that there are a lot of colors that are out of the CMYK gamut.

The conversions performed by the PDF engine are exactly the same as the convertions you do Photoshop. Just set the rendering intent in the colour settings dialog box before making the convertion.

But you are right, if one wants full control there is no way around getting your hand dirty.

Let me try to fill in some gaps.

Can you be more specific about your press problem?

Back Story:
I am working for a stone company. For the past three years I have been the junior designer here and the senior designer took responsibility for our color management—he mostly eyeballed things and used the monitor calibration tools provided with OS X. Said senior designer is no longer working here, which makes me the “only designer in the village.” ;-) When I discuss this problem with him on the phone there is not much he can do because there was not much of a system in place to begin with. The stone that we work has been very difficult to color manage because the shades are extremely subtle.

We have an ad that we are running in a magazine. The former senior designer created the whole ad from photography to layout to sending it off to the magazine for print. When the ad ran in the magazine the photo came out too pink/magenta. The original file looks fine from our printer, of course.

In the process of trying to fix the ad I discovered that the magazine requires a SWOP Certified proof for color proofing. We did not provide one of these originally so I got one made with the original file. The SWOP proof does not look like the image on my monitor or from my printer so I am perplexed about how to adjust the file for correction when I do not have a reliable source for testing.

Which software are you using to create your artwork, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop? Is it in the creation of pdfs?

The photo is originally edited on Photoshop and then the ad was laid out in InDesign. I have tried different methods for creating the PDF for print and they all come out the same when printed on the office printer.

My feeling at this point is that the problem comes from an over all lack of color management and calibration coupled with an overall lack of knowledge about what is actually necessary for good color management and calibration.

The most frustrating part is that we never seemed to really have this problem until the other designer left. Now I am not doing anything differently, but nothing is working like it used to. I’m sure the company owner thinks that this is all my fault and I can’t figure out how to fix it.

Any colour I have printed is on offset presses. I never print colour proofs in-house. I have my monitor calibrated, work in Adobe RGB (1998) colour space, and convert my RGB images to CMYK in Photoshop using the printer’s ICC profile. The printer sends me a contract colour proof. Never had a problem. Mind you, these are high-end book printers who have very finely tuned ICC profiles for each press.

As of this morning I have become aware of what is probably the weakest link in my chain. The printer that we are working with (Savin CLP28) is merely a “business class machine” as opposed to “Commercial Class” or Fiery. This means that I only have 2-bit (hundreds of colors) printing capability in-house instead of 8-bit (thousands of colors).

If I cannot get reliable samples from my in-house printer then I cannot judge whether my color is correct without taking my files to be printed elsewhere.

We’ll either have to get a better printer or I will have to start making frequent trips to Kinkos or AlphaGraphics.

Duncan

Ink jets can be very accurate and are very affordable - they take a lot of ink and are slow but the results can be very good and they can be profiled.

That might be a solution for you.

I am printing on a Canon C1 Imagepress and that thing is fantastic.

But here’s the problem - you get a SWOP certified proof and it doesn’t match the printers version. If you sent that in they would have a responsibility to try and match it. How serious they take that responsibility depends on the printer. If this is a printer you use all the time I would establish a relationship with them and work to get the best output.

My stuff goes all over the place and I just don’t have that luxury so I have to find a middle ground for magazine work and newspaper work. I’ve been pretty successful doing that.

Really until all your printers, scanners and monitors are profiled then you are kind of shooting in the dark at your end. And using the OSX screen calibration might work for some, but you are largely guessing.

Take a look at Eye One http://gretagmacbethstore.com/index.cfm/MenuItemID/290.htm

That is a very good solution.

pbc

Don’t expect the colors on screen to ever be good enough, and try and get a CMYK profile from the printer. If the printer can’t provide the profile you are probably getting “pleasing color” anyway.

It does help to be able to coordinate and soft proof in-house. No matter how deep you dig into the process there are always going to be grey areas.

Clauses,

Can you tell me what RIP software you are using? Is Fiery the only one I should be looking at?

Thank you for all your help,

Duncan

That really depends on the printer. The inkjet I was talking about is the HP DesignJet 90. The RIP that can actually utilise the EFI Designer Edition RIP. The one I have is an older DesignJet 10PS which is A3+ and was a fair bit cheaper. HP made a few generations to replace my A3+ model, but it seems the DesignJet 90 is now the smallest inkjet with loop-back colorimeter. Other manufacturers may have products with similar features but I have no experience with other inkjets. Hope this helps.