Files for printing

[ChrisB]

I am putting together a booklet which is going to be printed at a commercial
printers. The printer doesn't know Publisher but said it will be fine if I
save it to a pdf and save all images to cmyk format.

My question is, do I need to save all the jpg's etc. to cmyk format and put
them back in - or can I simply save the file in the print options to 'output
composite cmyk'?

This is a regular 40 page booket that I am getting printed so I want to make
my life as easy as possible!

Many thanks

 

[ChrisB]

Sorry - forgot to mention - using Publisher 2003

 

[Mary Sauer]

Lots of help here:
Commercial printing
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/CH062524641033.aspx

 

[ChrisB]

Yes, thank you - I had looked there and it talks about saving file as cmyk
but doesn't specifically say that you have to save each jpg (or any other
picture) to cmyk - and I wonder if this is necessary? it might be that the
printer is suggesting this as a fail-safe - as he has no knowledge of
Publisher??

 

[Ed Bennett]

My question is, do I need to save all the jpg's etc. to cmyk format
and put them back in - or can I simply save the file in the print
options to 'output composite cmyk'?

Leave all the images as they are, just tell Publisher to output composite
CMYK. It will do all the colourspace conversions on printing to PDF.

(Note that the Adobe Acrobat 7 plugin for Publisher will not work for CMYK
Composite output from Publisher, you will need to either print to the Adobe
PDF printer or print to file and drop the PS file into Distiller.)

 

[ChrisB]

This is most helpful - thank you.

Why would my printer think that I would need to save every picture to cmyk
first? Is he just playing it safe? The colours have to be perfect - we are
printing client's ads in a magazine.

To produce to pdf I have been using (although not tested on the printer
yet - a free program called pdf995 which does involve printing it to the
pdf995 printer which then produces the pdf. Is this what you mean? How
will I know if it is successful or not - is there anyway of testing before I
sent to printers?

Many thanks again.

Chris

 

[Ed Bennett]

Why would my printer think that I would need to save every picture to
cmyk first? Is he just playing it safe? The colours have to be
perfect - we are printing client's ads in a magazine.

Because many other professional-level DTP applications will not properly
separate RGB images when they are sent to the printer, so it is better to
convert them to CMYK before importing them.
Publisher does not deal well with images in CMYK format, so it is better to
let it separate RGB images at print. The colours, in my experience, are
indistinguishable from the original image.

The PDF of course has to be in CMYK, and the pictures within the PDF will be
CMYK. As your printer doesn't know Publisher, most likely he is giving
advice based on other applications with which he has experience.

To produce to pdf I have been using (although not tested on the
printer yet - a free program called pdf995 which does involve printing it
to
the pdf995 printer which then produces the pdf.

I have not tested creation of CMYK composite PDFs with PDF995. I see no
reason why it shouldn't work, but I cannot guarantee that it will.

Is this what you
mean? How will I know if it is successful or not - is there anyway
of testing before I sent to printers?

The tools you need to test this might be found in Adobe Reader, but I think
it is unlikely.
Your printer will have the tools and know-how to verify that your file is of
a suitable format. Before going any further with your project, I'd
recommend generating a small sample PDF using the same procedure as you will
when you send the final copy to press, and ask your printer to take a look
at it to see whether it will work with his equipment.

(Note that as well as specifying CMYK composite in the Tools > Commercial
Print Tools > Color Printing dialog, you will also need to select it under
Advanced Print Settings in the File > Print dialog)

 

[ChrisB]

OK that's great thanks. I had been testing the advanced printing option and
hadn't seen the Tools > Commercial Printing...

So I need to:

1. Select Tools > Commercial Printing > cmyk etc
2. Select cmyk in the Advanced Printing
3. Convert to pdf by sending to pdf printer

Many thanks for all your help


Chris

 

[Mike Koewler]

Chris,

<< The colours have to be perfect - we are
printing client's ads in a magazine. >>

I would send the printer a sample file and see how it turns out. Full
color ads in most magazines are not inexpensive, it would be worthwhile
to make sure you and the printer are on the same page BEFORE the
magazine with your ad in it is published.

Mike

This is most helpful - thank you.

Why would my printer think that I would need to save every picture to cmyk
first? Is he just playing it safe? The colours have to be perfect - we are
printing client's ads in a magazine.

To produce to pdf I have been using (although not tested on the printer
yet - a free program called pdf995 which does involve printing it to the
pdf995 printer which then produces the pdf. Is this what you mean? How
will I know if it is successful or not - is there anyway of testing before I
sent to printers?

Many thanks again.

Chris

 

[ChrisB]

Just to follow up on this, we sent the printer some samples - 16 pages.

He printed it in CMYK and RGB. The RGB version was the closest but both
were wrong. The red's were not right and an ad we had in there for flowers
which had really vibrant colours looked dead and the red rose looked orange.
The CMYK version was totally wrong, although a couple of the ads (with
blues) looked better than the RGB version.

We put all the pictures in in RGB and then changed the Publisher file to
CMYK.

The printer does have Publisher so he transferred it into pdf file before
printing for us - but he is not particularly familiar with the program.

Does anyone have any idea how we can get the combination right so that the
printer can print was we see on the page.

Many thanks for any advice.

Regards

Chris

Chris,

<< The colours have to be perfect - we are
printing client's ads in a magazine. >>

I would send the printer a sample file and see how it turns out. Full
color ads in most magazines are not inexpensive, it would be worthwhile to
make sure you and the printer are on the same page BEFORE the magazine
with your ad in it is published.

Mike