Printing problem with different placed images...

[rdtele]

Here's the situation - one of the guys in my design group put a brochure together using a collection of old and new images from a client library.

All of the images were 300 dpi, CMYK. Some had clipping paths and some did not. Some of the images were saved as .eps files and some were .jpg files. All were single images smaller than a full page of the brochure.

The pages of the brochure are white.

Here's the rub. The .jpg images (without clipping paths) are showing traces of C and M inside the InDesign bounding box after printing. I went back and checked the original PhotoShop files and can find no color outside the image. It's just reading white.

There are some areas within the placed .eps images that are white. Like a white logo on a red box, for example. Those areas are showing no dots on the printed piece. They also give me zero color readings when I look at them in Photo Shop, as I expected.

My question - is saving images in .jpg format and placing them in InDesign causing the problems? Or is it an issue with the film output house. I wanted to collect some opinions before I either reformat all the .jpg images or talk to the film house.

 

[tperkins]

Well if yo uare wanting an opinion, I would stay away from jpg files in the printing industy. They are great for what they are intended which is internet graphics, but I have found that the compression algarythms that jpg uses not only distorts the picture but also the color. Unfortuately once a jpg is is saved and compressed saving it back to tif or eps you may end up with the same image. So sounds like you might want to reave one of the jpgs and send it for film and see how it does then you can know if saving the rest will work or if you have to place clipping paths on all of them to get the pure whit you are looking for.

Tony Perkins

 

[tperkins]

Well if you are wanting an opinion, I would stay away from jpg files in the printing industy. They are great for what they are intended which is internet graphics, but I have found that the compression algarythms that jpg uses not only distorts the picture but also the color. Unfortuately once a jpg is is saved and compressed saving it back to tif or eps you may end up with the same image. So sounds like you might want to reave one of the jpgs and send it for film and see how it does then you can know if saving the rest will work or if you have to place clipping paths on all of them to get the pure whit you are looking for.

Tony Perkins

 

[rdtele]

Clipping paths for the images that were saved as .jpg probably won't be an option. They are illustrations with lots of feathered edges.

I would have to make the background they are sitting on the same size as the brochure page and place it into InDesign as a full page.

Still leaves me with the .jpg vs .eps situation and how InDesign treats them.

 

[jimoblak]

I wanted to collect some opinions before I either reformat all the .jpg images...

Converting JPG to TIF is a no brainer and a no timer. You could pull this off more quickly than waiting for responses here. Run these images through a batch process/action in Photoshop or use any number of free conversion utilities out there. You could easily convert images in no time. Updating links in InDesign is painless.

It is difficult to produce uniform pure white and pure black in a JPG.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[rdtele]

Thanks - the pure white/black in .jpg format was the info I was looking for.