Topic awaiting preservation: AAARGH!!! I need help!

I have a client that I did a CD project for, used PS for all the designs, etc. then layed the project out in Pagemaker. Now I needed to save all the images as CMYK for printing purposes, but for some reason my cover didn't save as CMYK. Now I convert the image to CMYK from RGB mode and now my nice rich wook looking cover looks really faded, dull and just a$$ nasty.

My client is stresses, I'm stressed and don't friggin know what to do at this point as this was supposed to be a Christmas release.

THANKS!

It's hard to tell without seeing the project. The design most likely contains out of gamut colors, that is colors that arn't reproduceable in CYMK. RGB and LAB can represent far more colors then are possiable to reproduce in CYMk, You will notice this particularly in Bright Red and Breen, but some blues also cause issues..

The proper settings for RGB to CYMK conversion are the key. Consult with your printer first to determine the proper photoshop setting to best reproduce image on there system. Now most small shops, will likely just use one of the photoshop default, But they should at least beable to point towards which one they perfer for the best results on there equipment.

Having said that and you have choosen the proper CYMK profile to target. There's realy only one more thing you can try, beyond simply recorrecting the image with Curves, Level, and etc...

Now don't expect too much, you will likely see very little change. But you could give this a try.

If you check your color setting, there is an advanced tab, there you will find come conversion option, I would set the Engine to Adobe (ACE), but if you have others aviable you could give them a try. You can also try altering the intent, Relative or Perceptual would be the best choices, but you could try Saturation and see how it looks. You shoudl avoid using Absolute as it's used mostly for simulating otherdevices.

Another option would be to redesign using a spot ink to reproduce a particular out of gamut color. But that's likely to increase cost. Expecially if you also need to run 4-color along with the spot ink or several spot inks. Keep in mind the printer must also be capable of runing the job.

J. Stuart J.

(Edited by jstuartj on 11-20-2004 10:25)

Most of the time we need to set the picture somewhat darker for printing purposes. Only then the printout matches the image on the screen.

A venue for sites with cool logo
http://www.pretty-logos.com

God it was a nightmare! The image came out all pasty looking, not as rich, and simply "ugly". To make it worst I had this dip$h!t printer giving me major grief in the process!

I need to do some serious research on this before I do more projects like this. I mean I've done about 10 Cd's to date and none of them looked as crappy as this one. It was a damn nightmare!!!!

thanks J!

One excellent book is "Professional Photoshop" by Dan Margulis. It should be required reading for anyone working working in prepress, advertising, or design for print.

I find that starting a project that I know will go to print in CMYK mode is a big help.

-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

Another MUST-have book is Real World Photoshop by Fraser and Blatner.

Pierre Courtejoie