Commercial Printing Problem !*!*!?
I have a design file that was created in Adobe Photoshop in CMYK at 300 dpi. I sent them the .PSD file to be printed in China and they can not print it from .PSD (why not?). They asked for a JPEG version in CMYK, I sent that to them and so they started to print the file,
The problem is, black looks like purple?!? They said it is my fault, how is that? The black is C 75%, M 68 %, Y 67%, K 90%. This is the blackest black on the color palette in Photoshop CS4. Yet, when they print it comes out purple.
Sometimes when "K" is low in ink "K" can sometimes come out purple (K in CMYK). This is the only thing I can think of.
From my understanding of design and commercial print, it is the color rip software that must be tweaked until they find the right print colors. Then they can save this color profile for the file for all future prints. I can take the same document to 4 different printers and each one would produce different results – THUS my conclusion that the variable is from the printers. Am I wrong?
As a designer, is there anything more I can do to make black look black in my CMYK photoshop design? Or is it entirely my fault?
DOCUMENT SETUP FROM DESIGN END
Size: 15"x30"
Res: 300 dpi
Bit Depth: 8
Color Mode: CMYK
Color Profile: US Web Coated (SWOP) v2
PLEASE, ONLY REPLY IF YOU HAVE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
The fact that the printer cannot handle a Photoshop psd file is concerning as jpg does not offer the same quality as psd and can cause colour shifts and other quality issues.
And if the rip software that controls the output devices is not properly calibrated that will only add to the end problem.
The file sounds fine from your description, I don’t think even if you upped the K to 100% that would make any real difference as the value is very close to what I was taught to use for ‘Rich Black’.
Are you able to get a print (even a digital print) done from your file locally and send to them for comparison?