offset printing problems ... HELP

[dangu]

hi -

ive designed a 4 page a4 brochure with diecut in indesign using tiff and psd images made in photoshop. everything is done in cmyk begining thru to end. the brochure looks perfect on screen - when printed on a laser printer prints perfect - but when is gone to offset comes out terrible. the maroon changes to a redish yellow and the blue changes to a navy. they tried to print it a number of times but with the same results. once again ill stress everything is done in cmyk. i gave it to the printers in acrobat format using several different settings and finally in indesign format but to no avail. i am using a pc while the printers have a mac - could this be an issue. and if it is arn't pdf's, tiffs and psd's cross compatible???

badly stuck as im way over deadline and my clients goin mental

Help
dangu

[defjoe]

do your images have profiles embedded?

[DeleteYourself]

What joe said. Have your printer send you their color profiles to install on your machine, as well as their distiller settings for when you make your pdf.

[rickself]

What joe said. Have your printer send you their color profiles to install on your machine, as well as their distiller settings for when you make your pdf.

Also, if you MUST send pdf's to a commercial printer, be sure and use the PDF/X-1a format. This will assure that, first, all postscript in the file is ok and second, all the information is saved in high resolution and CMYK. If Distiller won't allow you to save as PDF/X-1a, you may need to do some troubleshooting of your file to find hidden color or font issues.

Rick