Much of our different takes on this might be due to differences in our specific situations. For example, you mentioned printing a 2-color GIF logo that someone sent. This might work for you in your situation, but in mine, I wouldn’t accept the GIF for anything other than online use and would charge them to redraw the logo if it needed to be printed.
As you said, there’s not necessarily a right or wrong way of handling some of these things. Instead, it’s doing what’s appropriate for the situation, the client, the printer, the company one is working for, etc. There are frequently, however, better or best or ways of handling these sorts of problems that are sometimes not ideal given the circumstances of what one has to work with.
What’s frustrating to me is that I’m increasingly getting sucked down into a lowest-common-denominator way of working.
For example, I mentioned how I’ve always worked directly with printers until recently when clients have decided they can arrange for the printing themselves (often because my client base is spread over a much larger geographic area than in the past).
Not working directly with the printer, forces me to make conservative guesses about things that I’ve previously been very fussy about, like supplying RGBs or CMYKs or any other of a dozen different PDF settings that, as you mentioned, really should be adjusted for the job at hand and the printer.
I agree and feel it’s part of my service to eliminate any potential surprises on behalf of my clients. Plus I’m a bit of a control freak and want my vision executed as intended. I will place RGB in ID layouts, but I usually let acrobat do the converting during export (unless of course there is editing on the image that needs to be done).
That’s probably the best way of doing it since it keeps the original placed files in an RGB format for other uses, like a wider-color-gamut RGB online PDF, for example. For printing, you can check the suitability of the RGB to CMYK color conversion in the PDF.
On the other hand, there are always instances where a client or printer wants the native files and along with that comes the decision on whether or not to supply them as RGB or CMYK. There just aren’t many ideal one-size-fit-all ways of deciding some of these things.
Well it’s great when you know what you’re doing - but those that don’t need to be warned fairly.
It’s a great discussion - and it’s a side I have taken is that if someone supplies a PNG they get a PNG printed.
I can see zero benefit of resaving that as a TIFF (RGB) and placing it in InDesign - exporting to PDF with a CMYK conversion…
Simiarly - I see no benefit of resaving as TIF - converting the colour profile in photoshop - placing it in InDeisgn and exporting it to a PDF.
You get the same result by just placing the PNG and exporting a CMYK PDF.
Or in my case - my preference - is a PDFX4a and the printer converts to CMYK - with me receiving a colour proof.
I can simulate the colour profile in Acrobat anyway - so it’s no issue for me.
This is usually the best advice that comes out of any of this.
Talk with your printer - each and every printer will tell you something else.
On the few occasions I’ve actually had a printer call me directly to actually say thanks for sending through a file that works absolutely perfectly. It’s rarer these days - but when I do get it, it’s nice. And it must be hard for the printers, if they feel it necessary to call someone to thank them for setting it up properly in the first place.
Well, this is what I’ve been saying all along - in a roundabout way - it seems…
I do export to PDF and when PDF X4a is not required or needed or wanted from the printer - a colour conversion to CMYK will happen. But I’d need the printers .joboptions file to do this.
If not - then it’s just a crapshoot conversion. Yes, you see the CMYK conversion on your end with your colour profile.
But a lot of printers strip out embedded colour profiles for their own - which basically means you’re going RGB to (your) CMYK to (their) CMYK.
So the values you’ve seen on your screen will be different to what they see.
This brings me back to the point - to get a printers ripped proof.
All this over a PNG discussion.
It’s fun to discuss these things.
I do admit - it’s interesting to hear the other points of views, and be reminded that not everyone has the same situations and difficulties that I would encounter.
@Just-B hit the nail on the head.
Talk to your printer.
I remember when any RGB image came through the RIP in greyscale. It quickly became a habit to make sure every pic was converted to CMYK. Today’s RIPs don’t do that but the on board colour conversion can be unpredictable. Even doing the conversion in PhotoShop can give unfavourable results and I often either have to tweak the CMYK version or leave the RGB original in.
It is important that the client knows what they are going to get, so machine proofs are standard now. (That used to mean Cromalin proofs but now it means a proof run off the digital machine that will do the full run.)
“why does this look different than what I’m seeing on my screen”
I’ve gotten this a few times, and each time have explained the differences between a backlit LED screen verses ink on paper.
In my experience I like to use the .psd,
as there have been rare cases where the tif shows up with a black background.
I try not to use .png for printing but if i have to and the client isn’t fussy I could get away with it.
I print what you send me.
.tif, .psd, .eps, .png, I’ll even print that fake halftone bitmap if that’s what you want.
RGB? sure. CMYK, sure.
I draw the line at .psb files though.
And what seems to be forgotten in this entire conversation, though it is implied in several places (and may be in one of the posts I didn’t read,) once you convert an image to CMYK and save it and close it, you may as well not bother converting back to RGB. That color information was lost forever on that closing. Always work on a copy (should go without saying.)
And sRGB is no better than CMYK. A lot of stock companies are supplying images as sRGB, mostly for file size reasons. It certainly isn’t equivalent to full gamut RGB. Most pro photogs save RAW. ProPhoto RGB is the best bet for the most color information for conversion to press profiles but you do risk a severe shift if you don’t know what to expect. As B mentioned, at least having a look at what a proper CMYK profile conversion looks like can stave off the most unexpected results.
And speaking of profiles, in my world, using them is dependent on the machine doing the printing, the inkset in the machine, and the media on which the ink is being jetted (and to some extent the overlamination finishing process.) No where in any of the Adobe softwares are you going to find those profiles. And while some printers may provide Job Options for your PDF output, there is a reason a lot of wide format places want Native files. To apply those highly custom and sometimes proprietary profiles to imagery to get the best possible result. Not that many are left out there. Today’s market seems to be “Done is Good, color be damned.”
I only have a few years left to retirement. I will turn my back on this industry so fast, there will be whirlwinds.
If you’re supplied a JPEG or PNG - and htere are no edits to it - then changing the file format to another for the sake of it - that is opening the image and resaving it to a TIFF or PSD with no edits - you gain absoultely nothing by doing this - except a larger file size.
If you are making edits - then you need to choose the best option for you for the reproduction - whether that is resaving as JPEG or saving as PDF or saving as TIFF or PSD.
You do what the best option is for you.
placed in InDesign
With TIFF and PSD - the vector masks, shapes, and text layers are rasterised to the native file resolution of the TIFF or PSD.
For this reason - if you have vector masks/shapes, text layers in your Photoshop files, then you’re better off saving as a PDF.
And note - any Smart Object or Smart Layer is also rasterised to the native resolution of the Photoshop File.
No, they don’t.
A tiff saved to JPEG with maximum compression - you won’t see any artifacts.
You can test this yourself by taking a Hi Res Tiff - save it as JPEG with maximum compression
Place the JPEG on a layer above in the original image.
Set the JPEG layer to difference - zoom in - any differences will be visible.
Yes, if you save with minimum compression - of course it degrades.
PNG does not have lossy compression. PNG uses LZW compression - which is lossless. Unlike JPG that uses DCT compression.
If you’ve used layers, yes that is handy. If you haven’t - then why bother?
You could do the same with a PDF - TIff - PSD
Or any of the file formats that support layers.
