Image properties for printing

Huujuu

Huujuu

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Ian
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I'm sure this has been covered here before but i can't find an exact answer in my post searchs. Apologies if it has and i would appreciate directing to a thread.

I'm making a brouchure, A4, for printing by a proffesional printer, not my home printer, and i would like to optimise the settings in CS3. My settings at present are 300 pixels/inch, colour mode RGB-8 bit, colour profile sRGB. Should my colour mode be CMYK or Lab instead?

The images i am using are the size they were when taken, copy and pasted into document i am working on and individually transformed to the size i want once loaded in. Should i be resizing before i copy and paste them?

Think they are the main issues i have but any other advice would be fantastic, thanks.

ian
 
Contact the Lab and ask what format they require then you know it will be right.
 
^ What he said.

Find out from the printer what settings you need to use. I can imagine that if it is for print it will be in CYMK.

Are you just doing the images for the brochure or the whole thing?
 
I'm doing the whole thing and i think i understand that it needs to be CMYK but do i set that when i create a new document to paste the images into or convert it later? Then there is the resize issue and doing it in the least destructive way.

I dont know which printer i will be using yet, but in the past the only advice ive had from printers is to supply the image as a tiff.

thanks for your reply
 
Check with the printer, but I suspect they'll ask for RGB. Most printers will do the conversion to CMYK. CMYK is not a standard as sRGB or similar. It has different flavors, you've just got to look at the options you get within Photoshop, Also the print company may have it's own unique CMYK profile it prefers to use.
 
Just spoken to printer, they say start with CMYK as conversion later will create problems (i'm sure that's not what the advice on CS3 help means), but they went on to say that unless it's fine art printing there will never be a guarentee of colour matching. Looked at the PS options and just as confused!

Any advice on the resizing issue?

Thanks for you help.
 
Resizing.
Select Crop (c) enter the values for width and height but leave the resolution blank
Crop the picture
Image - Image Size
Now you can select the correct method of up-sizing or down-sizing
Set you PPI and either Bicubic Sharper or Bicubic Smoother.
 
Fantastic ! at last it all (mostly) makes sense. Printed some test images out, shrunk to 3cm using CYMK to create the document and ive never had results anywhere near as good as this. Thank's very much for all your advices.

I tried resizing as per Paul MR's instruction, which works fine and i also tried entering the same resolution in the crop dialog as i was using in my main document, i could'nt tell the difference between the 2 ways, but it was a little quicker if i entered a value and didnt have to go to image properties. Anyone know if there actually would be a quality difference?

What a result, getting your head around the options in photoshop, thanks again.

ian
 
If you're working in CMYK also check what their limit for total ink is, normally it's around 320 but some are lower. Normally I add an adjustment layer in PS and adjust the black to get everything below 320 as any image you import from RGB that has black will usually end up with a total ink of 340.

If you're now horribly confused google "cmyk total ink photoshop" and you should get some good information :thumbs:
 
pxl8 said:
If you're working in CMYK also check what their limit for total ink is, normally it's around 320 but some are lower. Normally I add an adjustment layer in PS and adjust the black to get everything below 320 as any image you import from RGB that has black will usually end up with a total ink of 340.

If you're now horribly confused google "cmyk total ink photoshop" and you should get some good information :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Why did you have to spoil it form me, ive just been proudly showing off my new found printing skills and now ive got another evening of googling.......before i start a new thread on here tomorrow asking for clarification of something that sounds like i should know what it means, if you know what i mean. Had a quick search and it hasnt helped, but i'll keep tryng.

Now when i look at my test print i'm convinced it doesnt look right, it did before, but i dont know now if it does or not! grrrrrrr Thanks! :thinking:

:) ian
 
Total ink will only matter for a proper cmyk print, not one from your home printer. Basically it's how much ink is laid onto the paper, too much and it can cause various problems. Normally it will be checked before printing anyway and sent back for correction or your printing co. might offer to fix it for you.

It's also worth noting that your test print probably won't look much like the CMYK print anyway, much better to proof it in PS with simulate paper colour turned on, assuming you're working with a calibrated screen.
 
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