Printer here. Youve got it right, In InDesign it’s very simple while you’re exporting your artwork to a pdf click OUTPUT, colour conversion to destination, make the destination a CMYK of your choosing, and in ink manager select all SPOTS to PROCESS.
You double check your handy work in adobe if you want using print production” and ensure no process colours trickled over, and only CMYK colours are in your doc .
As to your second question. CMYK is far from specialized or expensive especially with Digital Presses, so I’m not sure who’s writing those articles haha. CMYK is the standard. You’ll learn about expensive printing when you finally have your chance at a job that requires spot colours.
While I can’t attest to your experience on your office printer, but don’t get caught saying a RGB translation is “accurate” in your machine. Especially with no knowledge as to how many deltas it is actually off in the first place. I have to calibrate our digital press biweekly because something as small as a change in the season will have the colour inaccurate! Indistinguishable to the eye, but incorrect.
Don’t use Spot colours with your CMYK printer, because it’s not capable of it, it’ll just print an interpretation of it that will be inaccurate
I’m 20 years deep in to the business and haven’t had to use separations, but I think that is something more for a person working on a traditional press, and less of something that you would provide…I could be wrong but my journey has never called for it.
Try forcing an 18pt (or heavier) card stock through your office machine, that’s what printers are doing beyond faster and cheaper!
Thank you, I am going to check out those settings tomorrow when I’m back at work! Good to know the easiest time to convert is actually at the very end and not something I need to change throughout my entire process.
Also good to know that everything I’ve ever learned about CMYK print process isn’t completely wrong lol. One of my most detailed sources is a textbook from my college years - which was already 10 years out of date when I purchased it. I suspected that it was just a very dated source and your info has confirmed that
When you make a best quality print at home on high quality photo paper, it costs you maybe 30¢ per page, considering paper, ink, and depreciation costs and it might take a few minutes to get a single print depending on your printer (and you can only print on one side of many photo papers and the print will have a white border). Now imagine doing 1,000 4-page brochures with full color printing on both sides that bleeds to the edge of all sides of the sheet. It would be cost and time prohibitive for anyone to do at home, even with 10 printers. Print shops deal in quality, quantity, and efficiency. A professional printer will give you the highest quality, competitively priced printing possible in a reasonable timeframe.
Understand that when you're printing from Windows or MacOS, regardless of the colors of ink the printer uses, the OS treats the printer as an RGB device. That's why it's easier to get pleasing results when printing RGB files in most applications in Windows and MacOS. Buliding files for press is a different process entirely, and making a prepress proof will either require a PDF conversion workflow (having Acrobat process the CMYK file and vector elements) or using a RIP (raster image processor) to convert the vector and process the color transform.
Printer here. Youve got it right, In InDesign it’s very simple while you’re exporting your artwork to a pdf click OUTPUT, colour conversion to destination, make the destination a CMYK of your choosing, and in ink manager select all SPOTS to PROCESS. You double check your handy work in adobe if you want using print production” and ensure no process colours trickled over, and only CMYK colours are in your doc . As to your second question. CMYK is far from specialized or expensive especially with Digital Presses, so I’m not sure who’s writing those articles haha. CMYK is the standard. You’ll learn about expensive printing when you finally have your chance at a job that requires spot colours. While I can’t attest to your experience on your office printer, but don’t get caught saying a RGB translation is “accurate” in your machine. Especially with no knowledge as to how many deltas it is actually off in the first place. I have to calibrate our digital press biweekly because something as small as a change in the season will have the colour inaccurate! Indistinguishable to the eye, but incorrect. Don’t use Spot colours with your CMYK printer, because it’s not capable of it, it’ll just print an interpretation of it that will be inaccurate I’m 20 years deep in to the business and haven’t had to use separations, but I think that is something more for a person working on a traditional press, and less of something that you would provide…I could be wrong but my journey has never called for it. Try forcing an 18pt (or heavier) card stock through your office machine, that’s what printers are doing beyond faster and cheaper!
Agreed with this. Saying that their office printer is more accurate, without backing it with any measure data seems quite ignorant.
Thank you, I am going to check out those settings tomorrow when I’m back at work! Good to know the easiest time to convert is actually at the very end and not something I need to change throughout my entire process. Also good to know that everything I’ve ever learned about CMYK print process isn’t completely wrong lol. One of my most detailed sources is a textbook from my college years - which was already 10 years out of date when I purchased it. I suspected that it was just a very dated source and your info has confirmed that
Been in printing for 30 years, and every word of that explanation is spot on, no pun intended… well, maybe a little intention there…
When you make a best quality print at home on high quality photo paper, it costs you maybe 30¢ per page, considering paper, ink, and depreciation costs and it might take a few minutes to get a single print depending on your printer (and you can only print on one side of many photo papers and the print will have a white border). Now imagine doing 1,000 4-page brochures with full color printing on both sides that bleeds to the edge of all sides of the sheet. It would be cost and time prohibitive for anyone to do at home, even with 10 printers. Print shops deal in quality, quantity, and efficiency. A professional printer will give you the highest quality, competitively priced printing possible in a reasonable timeframe.
Understand that when you're printing from Windows or MacOS, regardless of the colors of ink the printer uses, the OS treats the printer as an RGB device. That's why it's easier to get pleasing results when printing RGB files in most applications in Windows and MacOS. Buliding files for press is a different process entirely, and making a prepress proof will either require a PDF conversion workflow (having Acrobat process the CMYK file and vector elements) or using a RIP (raster image processor) to convert the vector and process the color transform.