In my job as a cartographer I regualrly get asked to create advertisements for mining magazines. The ads usually contain both text and images. The colours I use in Coreldraw are PMS colours and the images are CMYK colours.

The problem I have is when I publish my ad to PDF the PMS colours always come out fine (which I would expect) but the image colours always look dull and washed out. The only time the images look fine when I publish to PDF is when I use output to RGB hut the printers then reject my ad (naturally). Is there something I need to do to the image in Photopaint?

Has anyone else come across this problem and how did you solve it?

Your help would be much appreciated.

 

I am experiencing the same issues, and am looking forward to some answers!

 

Many Thanks

Grant

I had that problem here is what I did to improve the output.

In the Color Management choose (both in CorelDraw and PhotoPaint), 'optomized for professional output', then import photos to add to the document, open in PP, but before changing from RGB to CMYK use the auto adjust and/or contrast enhancement to improve the photos, then change to CMYK then auto adjust / contrast again, (always keep original as RGB for future use and any corrections). Following those steps improved my photos quite a bit.

I am the art director for a motorcycle magazine and publish to PDF 68 pages to send to the printer every month. Last month, all of my colors seemed quite washed out and dull and several of my typefaces came through much thinner than were supposed to appear. I was able to by-pass the problem (sort of) by converting the entire page to a CMYK 300dpi bitmap before publishing to PDF, but it is an annoying an unreliable fix.

I had not changed any of my Color Management settings that I can recall, nor were there any other settings changes.

Is anyone else having this problem or have any other suggestions? I am currently using CorelDRAW X3 and my Color Management settings are "optimized for professional output."

Thanks ever so much.

~Lynne

Lynne,

First things first. Simply choosing "Optimized for professional output" and
pushing Save is not a good idea. That setting provides a very generic bunch
of settings, but that doesn't mean they are optimized for all users for all
"professional output".

Have you clicked the Settings button and gone through each and every one of
the PDF settings available?

Are your original files designed as RGB or CMYK? What are your color
management settings?

My "Optimized for Professional Output" mention was in response to niagaramouse's previous post.

Yes, I have clicked on the Settings button on the Publish to PDF dialog box and have gone through each and every one of the PDF settings available. As I mentioned in my previous post, the settings that I have been using with no problems at all for the last 7 months started looking wonky just with the most recent issue. When I first started working with this printer, we went through the settings together so that we could both be sure that I had them the way that they would receive them best. I saved those settings specifically for that printer for this very reason.

The image files come in as both RGB and CMYK depending on the source. There are a lot of different magazine photographers, and often my editors will find images online that they like.

When this problem began last month, I found that I could sort of fix it by converting the entire page to CMYK bitmap before publishing to PDF. The problem most often occurs when text is overtop of a bitmap. The text would appear to be very thin when it occured over an image, and appear normal anywhere else. Any RGB bitmaps would also export very faded in color.

The most curious thing about all of this is that I have not changed anything with the imported images (some were RGB, yes!) or the settings that I use for Publishing to PDF and I had no problems until just last month. The images would all Publish to CMYK PDF as their full vibrant colors and there were no discrepancies with my text.

I am quite confused and hope that this additional information may enlighten someone. If there are any settings as to which you are curious, please be specific and I'll surely be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you!

Lynne,

Anytime an RGB bitmap is converted to CMYK, the colors will shift and it
isn't always pretty. Color management settings allow you to have some
control over the conversion. Some images will convert better than others
simply because the colors in those images exist in the CMYK color model.

If you changed printers, you also need to change profiles to reflect the new
output device being used. Has the printer supply you with the appropriate
profile for their device?

This is a complex subject and there is no simple answer that can be
explained in a short post.

Yes, thank you.

I have been a designer for over 15 years and am well aware of the differences between RGB and CMYK and the occasional bounces back and forth between the two.

To better explain my situation, I did not change printers. I began working with magazine editors who already had their printer in place. The printer and myself worked together during the first month to ensure that I had the best settings for their machines and software. I now use these settings for every page each month. These settings worked great for 5 months and we had no problems. Then, last month, the files seemed to fall apart in the way that I have already described.

The results were not only noticable by the printer, but by my editors and myself.

Well Lynne, I don't have any further answers for you, sorry.

I'm positive something has changed, but have no idea what it is.

I wonder if something changed at the print shop, possibly by accident. They may be sheepist to admit it, since this would mean a deep discount for you or a reprint of the entire order. That can means thousands of dollars right out of their pocket.

Lynne, do you think it's worth it for them to point fingers anywhere else except at themselves? Keep in mind I work as a freelance designer, and also at several print shops over the years... I've seen my share of tense scenarios from both perspectives.

Bottom line: Maybe they'll work with you – vigorously – to find the problem. If they're not enthused to do that (in the interest of a long-term relationship) then red flags should go up in your mind.

FosterCoburn:

I'm positive something has changed, but have no idea what it is.

I wish that I could place the blame on the printer, Jeff. Oh, surely yes!

Unfortunately, the PDF is different to my own eyes in which the bitmaps are quite visibly faded and the text appears thin when it is in front of bitmap images. It most certainly seems to be on my end here.

I'm wondering if it may be a Windows error of some sort and am going to try uninstalling and reinstalling my copy of CorelDRAW.

*sigh!*

Lynne,

Uninstalling and reinstalling will not solve anything.

Now we're back to color managment and PDF settings. Something changed.

D'oh.

Okay... so my PDF settings have not changed because I use the same exact saved settings each time. So if anything was inadvertently changed, then it would be within the color management settings, given your two choices. Apparently "Optimized for Professional Output" was deemed insufficient, so what should these settings be?

Stinkzilla:

Unfortunately, the PDF is different to my own eyes in which the bitmaps are quite visibly faded and the text appears thin when it is in front of bitmap images. It most certainly seems to be on my end here.

OK, if your locally generated PDF looks bad from draw's PDF engine then what do you see in your color management options? Compare with your settings in X3 and see if something is different from this.

The immediate goal is to create a PDF that looks good on your rig.

Say, thanks, fellas for all your help. Just for an update, I created a test page with several of our more problematic instances and published it to PDF under each different preset Color Management Settings and sent them all to my editors and am awaiting their input. I think I know which I will go with, but I want to make sure that they don't find any additional issues. Towards the end of the last issue, I think they started making things up, ha ha! We were all looking through pretty bloodshot eyes by that point. :)

I will post the resolution here if we ever come to one and any other notes worth mentioning.
Thanks again!

~Lynne