Colour Variation

[ElbertC]

Hello all,

I am new to Quark and I hope that I am not asking a dumb question and waste everybody’s time.

I have imported a TIFF image with a solid background colour into Quark, and I have set the Picture Box colour to the same CMYK values as the image (the background colour was added in Photoshop--knock out of an object); the Picture Box covers the entire page and I want the image to be on that page. But to my horror, the Background colour on the image turns out to be extremely different against the Picture Box!

I understand that Quark doesn't display images at their best. But since I am new in Quark, I am not sure if I've done anything wrong, or worse, if I thought I was right and the colours would turn out to what they look like now on the screen after it had gone to the printer.

I was going to just use Photoshop to create a bunch of blank pages with the background colour and import them into Quark as pictures. But it seems like an insanely stupid way to do this.

Short of getting a proof from the printer, what should I do to ensure that when they prints this, it is not going to be in two different colours? Please help me!!!

Thanks a million in advance!
E.

 

[MarcusStringer]

Make a PDF of that page to see if there is any difference

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[signal49]

Print separations. If you can see a difference there, it will certainly be noticeable when the printer runs the job.

 

[ElbertC]

Hi,

Thanks for all your help.

I've tried saving it to PDF and EPS files and the colours look fine (on screen at least). I've also printed a seperation from Quark and it looks fine too. So I went into Preference and and changed the display to 32-bit and activate Color Management and set my monitor to "Apple 16" RGB Standard" and chose "Monitor Color Space" for Display Simulation--the colours look fine on screen now.

Does the Color Management actually affect the final print? Or is it just for displaying on screen? I hope I didn't screw up anything by doing it.

Thanks again!
E

 

[MarcusStringer]

The print shops will have their own set of colour profiles which they will use, so it only matters if you are going to print it your self

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[ElbertC]

Hello again,

Although it looks fine on screen now, but when I print it with my inkjet (need to show proofs to my boss), I can clearly see the difference in colours again! I printed the PDF file, it is still the same. But when I printed the seperations, I did not notice anything unusal with the images (i.e. I didn't see a "box" where the images supposed to blend in with the background).

Actually, is there a way within Quark to acheive a knockout effect (with a non-white background)? How do people usually do it? I don't want to use the drawing picture box because I want to add a bit of feathering around the object.

Thank you once again!
Elbert

 

[Baddoggy]

Have you made certain that the imported photoshop image is CMYK?

 

[ElbertC]

Hello,

Yes, all the images are CMYK. And I checked their background colours again and again, making sure they have the same values as the Picture Box in Quark.

Thanks!
Elbert

 

[RyanPace]

If you are printing to a non-postscript printer it is possible that your composite will not "look" proper. If your separations look fine your file will print fine. Placed graphics in Quark are displayed as FPO (for position only) this is not a representation of the quality of the art. When printing to Non-postscript printers, quark will print this lower quality preview.

As far as the knock out goes... I am having trouble visualizing what you are doing but, it sounds like you may have to create the effect in photoshop. If you use the numeric CMYK values in both aps everything will match. Simply create your effect in photoshop over the same color background you are using in quark and then place.

 

[ElbertC]

Thank you RyanPace for clearing that up.

I need to print proofs to show clients and they won't understand why the background colours of the images are off. Is there a way to print proofs?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[MarcusStringer]

Create a clipping path aroung your image so you dont have to colour the background

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[ElbertC]

Hi Marcus,

Some of the images have feathering around the edges and some have drop shawdow, so a clipping path wouldn't work.

Thanks again!
Elbert

 

[MarcusStringer]

Then get the printer to run out a sherpra proof or someone with a professional proofing device.
I don't think an inkjet printer is going to cut it, because clients are going to want to see something which will match the final output.
(ie, so they don't get a big surpise when they get the final product, then say to you "Why don't the colours I saw on the proof match what was printed?")

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[artman62]

ElbertC,

What profiles do you have set in Quark?. Did you save the CMYK image in Photoshop with a profile?

In a nutshell; Your image in Photoshop is raster data. Your background in Quark is vector data. They are handled differently. In Quark CMS you need to set your CMYK Solid Colors and CMYK Images to the same profile. I recommend U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.
Set your composite printer to the profile of your printer. Set your monitor profile to your monitor. For RGB Solid I use Adobe RGB or ColorMatch RGB. Ditto for RGB images. In Photoshop use the same RGB and CMYK profiles that you used in Quark.

When you print, select the profile tab and make sure composite is set to the profile for you printer.

And yes, Color management definitely affects the final print. Most people turn it off because they don't know how to use it.

If color is critical in your work, seriously consider getting at least the Eye-One monitor profiler or something similar. Apple RGB is a generic profile.