Viewing CMYK

[ChilBear]

Can you upload your PDF so we can see it? If none of us see the color shift then someone is playing Pinoccio and blowing smoke. Maybe you can identify the area that is wrong and we can use our "info" to tell what we "see".

[The_Stevinator]

I agree. If your gonna copy people put me on that list too. You should be able to see a shift going from RGB to CMYK everytime, even with those BS default color management profiles.

Not to pick, but why are you using the SWOP profile? Do you get all your stuff printed on a web press? If you don't, I would advise changing it. Chances are your losing out on color gamut. We use the most current GRACoL profile, in a calibrated workflow. Most people I know in sheetfed without the ability to calibrate/characterize they're workflow are using default U.S. Sheetfed Coated v2.

HOWEVER, just make sure you didn't start out in CMYK first, then go to RGB, and then back to CMYK. If that's the case, I can see why you didn't see a shift.

For things to be perfect in a perfect world, your printer should have told you what icc CMYK color profile they use.

Then you design in that profile, and you can be assured the colors will not change digitally on their side. If it still comes out wrong, you should change printers.

The reason why is if you are all using the same profiles, and monitors are calibrated it means their press/platemaker isn't calibrated/characterized properly. Which would lead me to believe they dont have any quality control standards such as measuring TVI/density/gray balance/etc....

[jee]

I just to wannna make it clear that I'm not trying to blame this on the press people, because when I printed them out of the laser printer at my office (after the fact) , they do show the unexpected colors. It's just frustrating not being able to see the shift at all on my computer.

I did start off with RGB for sure and then converted to CMYK. It is not the other way around.

Just out of curiosity, is it better not to use web based press, even though they offer more competitive price? For the time being, I'm going back to the previous press company I worked with. Even though they cost more, at least they always tried to make sure I'm happy with the outcomes. I've also e-mail them to let me know which ICC profile to use.

And I promise I'll order a high-res contract proof from now on.
Well, if you guys don't mind me asking another annoying question.... :lol:

How do I upload a pdf file on this forum? I don't have a link to provide...

[jee]

If anyone's willing...

Can I e-mail the file to any of you guys? I can even mail you a copy of the postcard I've got.

Let me know.

[The_Stevinator]

yeah you can email it to me or FTP it. PM me and i'll send you my email address. i'll figure out exactly what's going on with it. been kind of slow today with the holiday, and it raining for like the past month here.

well, you have to consider a lot of different things when going to a web. you want to be running rather large quantities of work to make it profitable. the biggest concern for me with webs is quality. when you are running paper through a press that fast things like registration (which can cause color shifting), ink density, etc.. become challenges. you will always (in my humble opinion) get a better quality product on a sheetfed press. you have more control over registration, water/ink balance, and density than a web. not to mention things like makeready times are lower.

so it's really a quality/quantitiy/cost analysis that you should do on a job-by-job basis. of course this is all my opinion from experience. i'm sure others may disagree.

althought a lot of people praise the RGB workflow. i'm not convinced. if i were designing a piece, i would want to start off in CMYK with the proper profile. that way i KNOW for sure what the final piece should look like.