This is probably a stupid question...

[Calligirl]

but I'm in a crunch. I've designed a CD cover and look the way it looks on computer but it prints out WAY too dark. I've tried adjusting my printer settings (what I could, anyway) but it doesn't help.

I've got color blends and filters and all sorts of effects on this thing and I don't have time to start from scratch. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[martyng]

What program are you using? What Colour mode is the image?

[Calligirl]

Sorry, I'm in Photoshop CS.

Wish I could submit it electronically and let the printer worry about it but I guess this is a good learning curve on what not to do!

[PrintDriver]

Wish I could submit it electronically and let the printer worry about it but I guess this is a good learning curve on what not to do!

^I don't worry about it unless you tell me to. And I'll charge you for my worry time.^

[martyng]

Does the printer print other things ok? If it does, change your image mode to cmyk, se eif that makes a difference

[steve2112]

I would make a copy of the finished file. Then flatten the whole thing and see what changes color if any and make sure you are in the color mode you are gonna print to, usually cmyk. When you are dealing with transparencies they might not be flattening as well as you want and that is why i would say to flatten everything before printing. What program are you printing from and what are you printing too?

Steve

[jimking]

^I don't worry about it unless you tell me to. And I'll charge you for my worry time.^
More money and time for the printer! :D

[CamarotaDesign]

sigh..... design by the numbers, not by what you see on screen. Solves all the problems.

[Drazan]

What are you printing to?

If you are sending it to a printer, what format do they need it in? .psd, .pdf, .tif, .eps?

Did you design in RGB or CMYK?

Does the printer need it in CMYK?

Never go by the colors on your screen. More than likely it is your monitor that is off thus causing all parts of your design to be off.

Designing by numbers usually means getting the real CMYK colors, Pantone colors, or more rare in printing the RGB numbers. MOST digital format printers use CMYK, and offset using the Pantone colors.

I'm not a production girl and usually use CMYK for my output to printers. There's others on here that are tons smarter about color than I am.

I use InDesign to work out my CD lables and covers, while using Photoshop only for individual components.

Also never print to your inkjet and expect it to look like the finished cover from the printers.

Coated and uncoated material as well as the different types of material can make a big difference in color output, even printing with the same file.

And... if you don't want to redo all the layers, flaten and adjust using the photoshop filters that are most commonly used for photos. IE: curves, levels, contrast, etc.

There's no real good quick fix for this.

[Calligirl]

Wow, thank you all for your fast posts. I'm following the advice and will let you know if it works.

[popejoydesign]

You can always flatten it and use the adjustment layers with the curves function and drag it down or up in the middle. That will darken and lighten it...as well as the adjustment layer "brightness/contrast"

[budafist]

Get a proof printed from your the printing company's proofer. If it's too dark/light, adjust and get another proof printed until you are happy. Then it is up to them to match the proof they printed on the press.

[CamarotaDesign]

Drazan pretty much summed it up.

I think you'd get the best results if you edit each layer according to the CMYK color values. First thing, convert to CMYK. Use the eye dropper tool to start measuring samples using the info pallette, you'll see that it lists a number for c,m,y,k those corrospond to the amount of ink that will be layed down. C=cyan, m=magenta y=yellow k=black.

You'll need to manipulate these levels depending on the color you are aiming for. I use curves, and edit each individual color layer. You can also use selective color and variations. Curves is most effective if you have a good understanding of CMYK color space.

Some pretty standard colors are: 100c 50m 0y 0k = a night blue on most presses, (blue varies on many presses, and in my experience seems the most problematic of all color builds) 0c 100m 100y 0k vibrant red. 100c 0m 100y 0k = a vibrant green.

skin tones are around 5c 20m 35y 3k ranges for a white person (depending on the press). I dont think you'd ever want any numbers higher than 50 for any of the levels when doing a skin tone for lighter skinned people, but there is probably someone more experienced with photo-retouching that can answer that better than me. Also, usually yellow has the highest level of ink in a skin tone.

I Highly reccomend this book to all designers who design for print: The designer's Pre-Press Companion (http://www.napl.org/eseries/source/Orders/index.cfm?section=unknown&task=3&SKU=NP346) its money very well spent.

[VLAHAKISA]

I use Illustrator, but does Photoshop have a 'saturation' function? In illustrator you can increase and decrease the colour saturation....which is like a brightness function.

This will pale them out.


Regards

Amanda

[U2P_Matt]

As Drazan pointed out:
Never go by the colors on your screen. More than likely it is your monitor that is off thus causing all parts of your design to be off.

If you are printing at home try to calibrate your monitor to more closley match the final printed output.

And if you do decide to send it out to get printed, do yourself a favor and get a hardcopy proof before printing the entire quantity.

[steve2112]

Yeah, The proofs we make off our color copier with the fiery e7000 graphic arts rip prints out a real close copy to our press so we usually charge like 5 bucks if anything for a proof and we let people know that it is within 5% margin of color shift and that usually keep them happy. If they need exact proof we get a matchprint or epson print, calibrated and all that stuff. You should always work with something at least close, unless you are dealing with spot colors.


Steve

[frankster]

When I first started to try and use a computer to make "art" I was about 13 (I think that would have been 1991) and I had been given a second hand monitor and it was nearly dead. I found that out when I tried to print something and it came out looking like a total bag of arse and when I looked closer the brightness setting on the monitor was wacked up to max because it was that knackered. Before that I used to play with coding on my dads BBC micro. Did anyone else get the Beebug magazine or am I proving myself to be on the negative scale of the coolometer here?