Moo & Printing(POD) : RGB to CMYK? Anything else to consider?

Two_In

Two_In

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Andrew
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Recently I had some paintings made into postcards by Moo. I sent them Photoshopped images, processed from RAW taken with the equipment below. The cards came back grey and dull. Moo said that this was because I hadn't sent CMYK images. Easy enough to convert RGB into CMYK, but why don't Moo do this themselves? To be fair to Moo they did reprint the cards for me after I sent them CMYK files.

Is there anything else that I should be doing to my images before sending them off to POD? Is it simply a matter of converting to CMYK in PS?

Thanks
 
Get your display set right for colour and brightness. You can wing this without buying a hardware calibrator - google is your friend.

Is your software fully aware of colour profiles?

Read up about soft proofing.
 
Strange. I've sent sRGB jpg files to Moo and the postcards and business cards have been fine. :thinking:
 
Looking back through my files, it seems that I've done that too ... I presume sent as full resolution (300dpi) for the card size, in uncompressed jpg with text included in the image, not with image + text in a pdf.
 
I have also sent RGB images to Moo on several occasions and always been very pleased with the result and sold many of the cards. Though hard to remember details, I would imagine that they wanted sRGB colour space.

Dave
 
Looks like I sent them sRGB jpegs & yes the results were good.

I believe that they accept pdfs though so I wonder if they require cmyk images if embedded in that format? But it's been a while, & if I wanted to do it again I'd be looking up their current advice.

Aren't they a bit expensive for selling on?
 
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droj said:
Aren't they a bit expensive for selling on?
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This was at one of our club Exhibitions where we can sell prints and a few cards. I think the cost was about £1 per card and I used to sell them at £2.50. Generally, we made enough money from cards to pay for the Exhibition venue so any framed pictures sold was a good profit. We are all amateurs but it would be tough making a living doing this.

Dave
 
I had some cards printed by Moo late last year and the colour repro was disappointing. I sent them RGB files but I can't remember if they converted them to CMYK or not. They did reprint them but the second batch wasn't any better.

I've come across this problem before. If it's a short run they will be printed on a digital printer and in my experience poor colour repro is a feature of the process.
 
My (short run) moo cards were excellent, with faithful, vibrant colour and good tonal range, which makes me suspect that the secret lies in file preparation ...
 
droj said:
My (short run) moo cards were excellent, with faithful, vibrant colour and good tonal range, which makes me suspect that the secret lies in file preparation ...
Click to expand...
Same here. Pictures have matched my screen. All I've done is export jpegs from LR. Paper/card stock selected might have some bearing on how the finished articles look. Matt finishes can produce a lack of contrast.
 
droj said:
My (short run) moo cards were excellent, with faithful, vibrant colour and good tonal range, which makes me suspect that the secret lies in file preparation ...
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Could be.

Years ago I went to my local printers (Cambrian Printers, Aberystwyth - now closed ) to discuss printing postcards for me. The guy took me through the factory, past all the big litho machines and in to the foyer. They'd just bought a digital printer and wanted to try it out on some of my files I'd brought in. IAfter weeks of trying they had to admit that they just couldn't get the results they wanted. I've heard other printers say that colour files can be a bit disappointing on digital machines. So I don't know. My files are usually good enough for litho and photographic printing!
 
jerry12953 said:
My files are usually good enough
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I'm guessing that it's all about having the correct colour profile for the specific output, and soft-proofing the images to it. Having one's display set up right of course, to start with.

I believe that some photo printers will print using their in-house setup to 'auto-correct' white balance & tone. DSCL told me once (though the lad on the phone didn't sound wholly convincing) that they print 'as sent', which suggests to me that soft-proofing would be advisable. Another lab I remember (for C-types) had auto-correct as their default, but gave you the option of 'print as sent'.
 
Maybe Moo cocked up?

"Images shot with digital cameras are normally set to a default RGB colour space (sRGB is the most common) however MOO prints in CMYK. Not to worry, we’ll convert them to CMYK using our own profile."

support.moo.com

Video tutorial: colour settings for photos

What colour space should my camera be set to? Images shot with digital cameras are normally set to a default RGB colour space (sRGB is the most common) however MOO prints in CMYK. Not to worry, we’...
support.moo.com support.moo.com
 
A bit of digging tells me that Moo, whether in the UK or the US, uses HP Indigo digital printers - as do Blurb. And yes, those printers print in cmyk.

I've used Blurb successfully before, and sent them print-ready pdfs with images having their cmyk profile. But I believe that you can send srgb & that can work too, in fact if you use their layout apps they probably demand it.

jerry12953 said:
Never had a problem with my prints at DSCL. Always spot-on!
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But that's not very informative unless you say how you send them - what's the colour workflow?
 
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Some newer (more expensive) digital machines are six or eight colour, so sRGB and the printer to convert is the better option. CMYK for litho 100% for sure but even then best to check what profile they want.

If colour accuracy and quality is important I believe a conversation has to happen to get the file prepped correctly.
 
droj said:
A bit of digging tells me that Moo, whether in the UK or the US, uses HP Indigo digital printers - as do Blurb. And yes, those printers print in cmyk.

I've used Blurb successfully before, and sent them print-ready pdfs with images having their cmyk profile. But I believe that you can send srgb & that can work too, in fact if you use their layout apps they probably demand it.


But that's not very informative unless you say how you send them - what's the colour workflow?
Click to expand...


It's the same workflow when sending to DSCL and Moo, if that's what you mean?

I'm not suggesting that I'm "right" and everybody else is "wrong", by the way. I'd quite like to get to the bottom of this myself.
 
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Am I understanding this correctly? That you need to have quite a bit of detailed information from the printer - eg profile, paper type, inks etc - before you can softproof an image? I can see that would work easily if your printing your own work, but how would that work in the case of Moo, for example, who use a completely different process?
 
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