Home › Forums › Photography Q&A › Help! Colors blown-out when printed
- This topic has 25 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 3 months ago by Ezra Morley.
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November 23, 2020 at 2:29 pm #55536Blessings CapturedParticipant
You probably do want to save in the CMYK color space, but it’s also possible, according to this thread, that his print software (not necessarily InDesign, but the other software he uses for actually “sending” the job to print) is so outdated that it can’t handle the proper color space options.
So I should ask him if the the printer we’re using is offset and if it is I should use “press quality” with colors converted to CMYK? But what is the option mean to “preserve numbers”?
Something you could try is to ask him to print one of your files straight from your export.
Good idea.
November 23, 2020 at 3:47 pm #55539Ezra MorleyModeratorAre you ready for a long read? 🙂 Here’s an article that seems to have a few insights into some of the intricacies of CMYK in InDesign <-> Photoshop. https://creativepro.com/my-cmyk-images-change-when-i-print-or-export-pdf/
So I should ask him if the the printer we’re using is offset and if it is I should use “press quality” with colors converted to CMYK?
Yes, do ask him whether it’s an offset machine or not. (I think both offset and “digital” printers use CMYK, while inkjet printers like my Canon Pro-100 do not.) It would be good to clarify what we’re working with here, but he’s almost surely working with something that needs CMYK input, since he mentioned “toner”.
Here’s an article that gives the basics of RGB vs. CMYK.But what is the option mean to “preserve numbers”?
If I’m reading that article correctly, it means that InDesign should not “re-convert” any files that are already in the CMYK color space. (CMYK colors are interpreted by computers as a series of numbers). i.e. yes, you do want to preserve numbers.
Here’s what I would suggest.
- Start back from LR with your edited RAW files.
- Do your edits, sharpenings, etc in PS, but DON’T set a CMYK profile in Photoshop.
- Import the RGB files to ID, (you can actually import PSD files if you choose)
- And when you’re all done, export to PDF and only then tell ID to do the CMYK conversion at that point.
- After you’ve received another proof, go back and edit as needed for brightness, exposure, etc… following the exact same workflow. (RGB -> InDesign -> export a CYMK .pdf file)
Of course all your careful work could be lost if your printer does any sort of conversion or “saving” so make sure to ask him what you need to do so that he doesn’t have to change anything.
I will admit that I’m quite a novice in this whole printing business myself, so if @jamesstaddon has better advice, I hope he shows up to give it. 🙂 I recently was responsible for typesetting/layout of a ~150 page book with about 40 pages of photos in it, so I’ve been working through some of this stuff myself. It’s quite a headache, and even professionals sometimes strongly disagree on what’s the “best” way to do things. (As you will see if you read the comment section below that first article I linked to.)
November 23, 2020 at 4:07 pm #55540Blessings CapturedParticipantDo your edits, sharpenings, etc in PS, but DON’T set a CMYK profile in Photoshop.
I’ve already gone through all the images and and set a CMYK profile. Do I need to go back and change the profile back to whatever it was original?(RGB?) Or will it be fine if I “Preserve numbers” in Indesign?
November 23, 2020 at 4:43 pm #55541Blessings CapturedParticipantOr can I go through and override the defaults like shown in the the article you linked.
Override the Defaults. When you import a CMYK image, you can turn on the Show Import Options checkbox in the Place dialog box. The Color tab of the import options dialog box offers you the chance to choose a color profile If there is a profile listed above Use Document Default, it means there is one embedded in the image. If you choose that, you’re telling InDesign that you want to honor the embedded profile, not ignore it–you want InDesign to color manage (cross-render) this CMYK image…If you have already imported an image, you can find the same options by selecting the image on the page and choosing Object > Image Color Settings.
November 23, 2020 at 6:45 pm #55542Ezra MorleyModeratorOr can I go through and override the defaults like shown in the the article you linked.
What you can do is check the images, and make sure they’re set to “Use Document Default” (like it shows in the screenshot in that article).
You’d need to follow these instructions if the images are already in your file:If you have already imported an image, you can find the same options by selecting the image on the page and choosing Object > Image Color Settings.
If they are set to “Use Document Default”, then you shouldn’t have to worry about changing them. Then you’d just want to make sure that when you export that you select the “preserve numbers” option.
November 23, 2020 at 7:11 pm #55543Blessings CapturedParticipantOk, tomorrow I should be able to get a sample printed, that’s the real test…
November 26, 2020 at 11:34 am #55605James StaddonKeymasterLooking at that comparison photo @buddingphotographer posted on November 21, 2020 at 6:42 pm, reminds me all the world of a brochure I saw one time that had all the greens washed out (I don’t think there was much red color in the brochure). Since I was in the bindery, I asked the pressman, and he said something like “yeah, that’s what happens when an RGB file (instead of CMYK) is printed”. Without knowing the details of either that past experience or what you’re experiencing, my birds-eye view perspective is that it probably is a RGB vs CMYK issue somewhere.
That was probably 10 years ago, so I don’t know what new technology printers may have these days with auto-converting RGB files to CMYK, but I’ve always made it a point to send things to commercial printers in CMYK.
I also distinctly remember colors looking way off after learning that a digital press had “not been calibrated” in a while (like, in over a week). After calibration, the colors looked better.
But colors will always not look as perfect on paper as they do on screen. So I’ve learned not to be too particularly picky. The viewer of the calendar will not have seen the pictures on a screen before.
November 27, 2020 at 6:57 pm #55614Blessings CapturedParticipantGood news! Praise the Lord, the colors have printed correctly! I have not physically see them, but my printer says that the colors are looking good.
We also think we’ve found the root problem. Because there were so many high quality pictures (300dpi) it was taking over 2 mins to print one page. To save time (also cost) he printed one set and then used a scanner to print additional ones. But the problem was the scanner was blowing out the colors. He didn’t realize that the scanner was doing that until we did all these test. I’m eager to see the calendars in person!
Thank you @buddingphotographer and @jamesstaddon for all your help!
November 27, 2020 at 8:21 pm #55615Ezra MorleyModeratorWonderful!
Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense to get that kind of results from copying color prints. I hope the printer learned a valuable lesson from this. 🙂 There’s no way you’ll get anywhere close to the right quality from scanning/reprinting. :/
I’m also curious as to how it would be cheaper to copy instead of print…
December 3, 2020 at 9:29 am #55693James StaddonKeymasterI would recommend looking into a different printer.
December 3, 2020 at 11:55 am #55696Ezra MorleyModeratorI was thinking the same thing, @jamesstaddon
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