Please help: Graphics Card/Colour Profiles

[Liam]

Is there a 'correct' colour profile to have?

Basically, I've just made an A1 poster in Illustrator, printed it out on A4 and it's looked on paper how it's looked on my screen.

However, I've just taken the file to the printers, and he has opened it in his Illustrator and printed it onto A4 and the result both on screen and on paper is that the document is much darker.

What is the correct colour profile to have? Or is it just my colour profile in Illustrator that I have wrongly set?

Liam

 

[MacHeadCase]

You need to embed your colour profile in your Illustrator file that way your printers will use the same profile.

Also, ask your printers if they print using CMYK or RGB. My bet is that if they are serious printers, you need to send the file in a CMYK colour space.

Or if the print is digital, they might need the file to be in a RGB colour space in which case the colour profile should be Adobe RGB 1998.

 

[Liam]

Cheers for the reply.

Well the end result different slightly in just my background was much darker. Looked ok though so I just stuck with it.

How do I embed my colour profile into the document?

Liam

 

[MacHeadCase]

Colour profiles... The dreaded colour profiles! This is still something I am trying to really integrate in my knowledge. Maybe someone can jump in here and explain this better than I can. Anyway here I go!...

I have Illustrator CS at school at the moment... Dunno which version you use but here I go with what I see.

You go to the menubar in Illustrator and under Edit, you will find at the bottom settings for colours and for giving the work a profile. Look at both of these, you have things to tweak in there.

You should consult with the printer to make sure you both use the same profiles... Like one of the defaults here is US Web (coated or uncoated) but this is really a generalization and it doesn't go with every job you'll need to print. My suggestion is to talk with the printers and ask them what they prefer.

Like I said earlier, if the print is digital, it will need an RGB profile (usually Adobe RGB 1998), if it is in CMYK, then I'm not really sure what is in use in Europe so you'll need to get info from the printers.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Forgot to mention that you will have to calibrate your monitor and make sure that that calibration is used by your drawing app to make sure what you input in your drawings will be as close as possible once printed as what you see on your screen.

You can calibrate your monitor with Apple's ColorSync, save that profile so you can load it in the app somehow.

An easier way would be simply for you to choose Adobe RGB 1998 for your screen, that way you can very easily load that profile in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. as it is built-in these apps.

As you can see, colour profiles are a bit complicated...

 

[Liam]

Thanks for your help mate!

 

[Alexis]

Just make sure you're working in CMYK. Nothing should be RGB.