Monitor calibration-->CMYK printing

[monokakata]

Maybe this will help. Illustrator:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30d2a5051004d659b1c-7ff6a.html

I can't see how it would help unless I had a profile for their printer(s), where "their" = Lightning Source's, in Tennessee, and they don't offer one. LS is a very large high-speed print-on-demand operation and I have no idea what sort of printers they use.

They seem to think it's unimportant, because nowhere in their instructions for their clients do they talk about profiles or setting up for anything at all except the proper Adobe specs and CMYK, as in the section I quoted. I've delivered 7 cover PDFs to them and they've said nothing (and except for the one with the blacks problem, they all turned out well).

Am I missing something here?

 

[Consultant]

I can't see how it would help unless I had a profile for their printer(s), where "their" = Lightning Source's, in Tennessee, and they don't offer one. LS is a very large high-speed print-on-demand operation and I have no idea what sort of printers they use.

They seem to think it's unimportant, because nowhere in their instructions for their clients do they talk about profiles or setting up for anything at all except the proper Adobe specs and CMYK, as in the section I quoted. I've delivered 7 cover PDFs to them and they've said nothing (and except for the one with the blacks problem, they all turned out well).

Am I missing something here?

Unusual.

Perhaps they apply the printer profile on their end, so if you got calibrated display and get proofs you should be fine.

 

[funwithdesign]

I'm not sure what you mean, but I'd like to know.

When I'm satisfied, I export a JPG highest quality and place it in the InDesign template the printer prepares and emails to me for the book (given size, given number of pages (so the spine can be correct), given UPC, etc.) and I'll generally drop the blurb text onto the back cover in InDesign.

So unless I'm not understanding what "working in JPEG" means, I don't think I'm working in JPEG. But maybe I am. I'd like to know, if so. I'm learning a lot here.

Simple thing to keep in mind. After you bring it into Photoshop, don't use Jpegs anymore. Each time to you save a JPEG, you lose quality. Use TIFFS to place in InDesign, these use lossless compression and have less quirky artifact issues.

 

[monokakata]

I understand that saving a JPEG over and over again causes problems.

But I never re-open a JPEG in PS once I've written it out as JPEG using "save as." If I don't like the JPEG, then because I'm still in PS with PSD file, I make adjustments and write out another JPEG. No JPEG ever comes back in.

If I come back to the project later, I open the PSD file only. Are you saying that this counts as working in JPEG?

I'll try writing out TIFF for the next cover project. For that one, it looks like I'll be getting Canon raw images to work with.

 

[thekev]

Unusual.

Perhaps they apply the printer profile on their end, so if you got calibrated display and get proofs you should be fine.

That would be completely incorrect and cause strange behavior. You can basically build a profile from submission guidelines if necessary assuming you have all relevant information. In the end those are just percentages. The profile will affect how it's mapped from RGB --> CMYK and how adjustments are mapped to the CMYK file. That is what you typically receive. It will mention separation method, ink limits, guidelines for trim, etc. I'm going off years of reviewing ad submission specs.

 

[Consultant]

That would be completely incorrect and cause strange behavior. You can basically build a profile from submission guidelines if necessary assuming you have all relevant information. In the end those are just percentages. The profile will affect how it's mapped from RGB --> CMYK and how adjustments are mapped to the CMYK file. That is what you typically receive. It will mention separation method, ink limits, guidelines for trim, etc. I'm going off years of reviewing ad submission specs.

Since they don't seem to provide a printer profile, what do you think happens?

 

[thekev]

Since they don't seem to provide a printer profile, what do you think happens?

If they're taking submissions in cmyk, the numbers they actually receive are whatever comes in. You don't retag data, because it changes the way the numbers are interpreted, not the numbers themselves. If you're converting to a specific profile, it's not perfect. It does however give you advanced knowledge of where there will be clipping issues.