1. 72 dpi MINIMUM, 150dpi recommended, 300dpi is best but the files tend to get monstrous and become a pain.

2. better to print from the graphics app, more control over borders, scaling and color generally (though I'm not familiar with corel)

3. a bit vague, but generally the best way is lots of test printing.

and all of it really depends on the printer and quality of paper in the end

3. Use CMYK instead of RGB for colour settings.

1. As FOG said

2. If your prints are open as jpgs, it shouldn't really matter in terms of quality, per se.

3. USE PAPER PROFILES! If your printer can do them, these are a must. Also, try to calibrate your monitor. CMYK as confections said is a must (make sure you match your blacks)

2. on this one, I was printing some wedding invites out this weekend (for a relative) and printing from Photoshop vs. Canon printing app made a big difference in the colors printed.

Never print anything at 72dpi. 150dpi is minimum. Professional printing is 300dpi.

CMYK vs RGB does not matter unless you are professionally printing then you must do CMYK. You can do either for digital printing.

w: really? you've never found an image look bad by printing in RGB? I would never dream of printing in anything other than CMYK. Why not convert? It doesn't take long.

e*

oldv, I should clarify my comment. You do not have to do it. You can, but if you don't you can still print RGB digitally. Sure the color changes. Not always for the best though. When professionally printing, you must convert to CMYK though.

Useful inputs here.

Normally we get our panels printed at commercial print shop, had a bad experience quite a few times. Main problem is the color variation (what we see on the monitor and what we get on the paper). Another problem is the slight blur of the print, it is not crisp/sharp.

Oldenvirginia, can you plz explain paper profiling, calibrating monitor and matching the black.
Thx

More precisely:
1. With what kind of our own "settings" (in terms of color/resolution etc.) shall we approach the commercial printers?

2. What instructions can we supply them for a good quality print?

For commercial printers, get a pantone test sheet printed there, and keep it around your office. Then choose colors based on that test sheet, not based on what it looks like on your screen.

An alternative to the Pantone book is this one which shows a huge range of different CMYK combinations and what they actually look like printed:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Process-Color-Manual-Combinations-Prepress/dp/0811827577/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207641215&sr=8-1


The only reason you may not want a pantone one is that pantone printing is usually kept for 'spot colours' or colours outside the CMYK range, such as florescents or metallics. The vast majority of printers will be restricted to CMYK, or would at least prefer it. The pantone test sheet (if I remember correctly) does, however, give cmyk values for those that fall into the range.


gold spot - there's a good walkthrough on monitor calibration here:

http://www.signindustry.com/computers/articles/2004-06-01-GIA-MonitorCalibration.php3

If you want great monitor calibration, you could ask the printer what paper they print on and if they can provide you with/point you towards a paper profile. These are profiles you choose when printing (defaults are usually 'glossy', 'matte', 'premium paper' etc) to make sure your printer puts the right amount of ink on for that specific paper (and it's absorption levels etc). You can add this to the monitor calibration so that the white you see on screen matches the white of the paper.

Matching the blacks refers to the different types of black you get when printing CMYK (and aren't noticable in RGB). Basically, this is because the monitor is made up of pixels containing Red Green and Blue. This is an additive model...r, g and b are ADDED by emitting various amounts of each colour to you. When they're all off and no light is emitted, it's black.

Now with cmyk, or inks, it's SUBTRACTIVE because the paper isn't emitting the light, it's absorbing all but the colour you see. Therefore, while the RGB black is just 0,0,0 (ie. no light from red, green or blue), the CMYK black can mix cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The difference here is that if you just print 0,0,0,100 (plain black) you get a very lacklustre black. If, however, you print 63C, 52M, 51Y 100K then you'll get a much more black black.

There's a good explanation of this (and warm/cold blacks) here:

http://marvin.mrtoads.com/richblack_vs_plainblack.html


...and to answer your 2 questions:

1) 150 to 300dpi. CMYK colour.
2) If you can get the paper profile they use, use that to calibrate your monitor. You should be fine then, just make sure they use the same paper!



Hope that helps.

Thx soo much oldenvirginia!
very useful information, surely gonna make use of.

"The vast majority of printers will be restricted to CMYK, or would at least prefer it."

oldv, not sure what you mean here. can you explain a bit more? our work is is a balance of 4cp or spot colors. sometimes both. i have not found that most printers are restricted to CMYK nor have i ever heard them express that they desire it. running two spots is a cheaper solution than 4cp. there are a number of small printers that only have two color presses so achieving 4cp would require two passes through the press, and that is not ideal since it is more difficult to control color on press.

are you speaking to gold spot's situation only know that s/he will be printing digitally?

oh, and that book that oldv points out is a good one. my only frustration with it is that the three and four color builds do not incorporate darker combinations. for instance, i believe when adding black to cyan and magenta the builds stop at using 40% black. nothing above that. that said, it is a great resource.

1. I agree that 150 dpi is the minimum for presentation printing. 72 dpi will typically look pixilated. 300 dpi is better. If you are using your own printer check the native resolution (sometimes they are not nice round numbers).

2. This depends on the complexity of the presentation. I like to print everything from the same application to ease getting a consistent look but sometimes detailed line drawings come out best printing from Acad.

3. See #2.

I must also disagree on the comment to use a CMYK color space. If you are using a consumer level printer these machines are designed to print from RGB or sRGB color spaces (sRGB is a limited gamut color space best left for screen-based viewing and not printing). If you are using a print shop CALL THEM and ASK THEM how they would like the files prepared (native application or PDF), what output resolution to design to and what color space to use. I would think it is more economical to print digitally (inkjet) these days than with separations on a press (what has been described in other replies)… Also ask the shop if they have soft-proof profiles for their machines – these will allow you to proof on-screen what your file will look like coming off their printer (this has saved me many dollars!).

The advise to color calibrate your workflow is a good one. At least calibrate your monitor (I like the Eye One) and at best if you are printing in-house profile your printer and use a profile for your paper. This way what you see on the screen will be what your printer produces.

If you are using your own printer make sure you understand what is handling the color. Both Epson and HP have software that automatically adjusts color saturation, hue and contrast on you. If you are printing from Photoshop and using Epson’s or HP’s software make sure you turn one of them off or you will never get consistent and/or WYSIWYG color… the programs will be in mortal combat over your color space.

Use high-quality paper that holds the ink and gives you clean lines and saturated color.

Don't wait to the last moment.

All good points threshold. While I have never released anything in RGB space, I do have digital printers consistently tell me that the color space does not matter. Their comments must not take into account quality of image and just be addressing the working process on their end.

While digital printing is cheaper and certainly the route to go for gold spot, for short runs and/or clients without much money, there is a significant different in quality between digital and offset printing. Offset is much preferred and offers better control of color and more paper choices. Most digital printers will only print on a few types of paper and most are coated sheets.

> e – I’ll go ahead and contradict myself now… Color space and the resulting gamut does matter for real high-end printing. I have had issues printing fine art photography prints large out of a digital post-process. It seems crazy that if I stay below 22” on a max. dimension everything is fine but go big… ughh.

For a show about a year ago I was having a nightmare of a time printing this one 30x45 photo. I ended up pulling the job from the first printer and going to a local high-end shop because I could react faster to the test strips. I had a match print they were targeting and they never got it how I wanted. The color shifts (in the red/orange highlights) we were trying to eliminate would change depending on the color space they would print my file from. We tried everything, RGB1998, ProRGB, LAB… So yes, color space does have an effect on output.

2. as a general rule, avoid jpeg. If you're not sure about what you're doing with the compression you can sometimes get artifacts. I like png and tiff, sometimes raw or exr.

Wow, I'm learning a lot about printing here! Keep going...

Very enlightening indeed....
Yes, printing budget is restricted particularly for small offices....with all this information we could get more value for money....i am sure.

print from pdf if possible, especially if they are a composite of images and text. this usually plots/prints without problem.

if you are using Adobe software, let the software do color management for you. most epson, etc. inkjets are designed to print from an RGB colorspace as mentioned above. sRGB is a limited gamut and I like to convert to Adobe RGB for better color consistency (and better greens and reds).

also there is a huge difference in color as it goes down on paper. saturation on coated and uncoated stock will produce pretty large color shifts so test print if possible. lots of the higher end inkjets have ICC color profiles for specific paper stocks.