BackStage and ICC based color mgmt

[dgraves]

Is anyone using Backstage with automated color conversion on a consistent basis?
Meaning having a pdf file wit CMYK and RGB files and have them converted with a standardized profile?
I have done some testing with RGB files and am having trouble with different tagged RGB files. Some convert great while others don't.
Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

[michaelejahn]

Wow - not sure I know where to begin with the many of questions I would need to ask before offering any advice no matter if you were using Backstage or any other color management solution. my FIRST question is who is making these PDF files and why on earth are they creating PDF files that have images with a mix of CMYK and RGB color space in them ? I imagine you ARE having problems, and it is BECAUSE you have "different tagged RGB files" ! And the statement "...converted with a standardized profile..." - where is this "Standard Profile" and what is this profile ? Is this a printer profile ? Is this profile being used as a working space ? At the end, are you printing to a device and evaluating that, or are you creating a new PDF - and what type of PDF (PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-4) - I do not think anyone here can really suggest anything helpful until you describe your workflow a bit more clearly.

questiongs like;

what are color setting in Photoshop, and how are images prepared before they encounter (hopefully) InDesign ?

what are InDesign's Color settings ?

when (hopefully) the PDF file is exported, what are the settings ?

need somewhere to start ? --> http://www.gwg.org/download.php?f=e3...c7b9996e774dd7

Hope this helps !

[dgraves]

Hey, Michael. Nice to hear from you. Seems you are at a different job every time I encounter you. Problem is: we are a commercial printer. We receive all types of files. We receive a lot of pdf files from our customers. Most are good pdf files with CMYK. Others have a mix RGB/CMYK. We normalize the pdf files into Esko. I am currently using a device link profile I created in Kaleidoscope for testing purposes. Seems to be working pretty good so far.... As far as the settings, across the board. I have heard that with Esko, I may need to purchase a license for one of their color applications. Any thoughts?

[edwinb]

to clarify the question

The system goal is to do the following:-

1) files that come in with a cmyk (say iso27) or rgb say ( adobe98) icc profile attached get converted to your cmyk press profile (say iso39)

2) files without tags are asssumed to be in a 'guessed' profile space and converted accordingly eg cmyk (assumed to be iso39)- unchanged, rgb (assumed to be srgb) converted to your cmyk press profile (say iso39)

are the assumptions reasonable?
can you live with the wrong assumption when it occurs?

maybe I havent understood correctly?

regards
Edwin

[dgraves]

Yes. Exactly.

[edwinb]

"Some convert great while others don't."

so is the area of the problem rgb (no profile) to cmyk
you indicate in your question that
cmyk (no profile) to cmyk is ok so you have made a good assumtion.

if so, can you change the assumed rgb profiles to see if you get consstantly better results or try to assign profiles befor convertion depending on source?

edwin

[dgraves]

RGB to CMYK. I do not want to alter the pdf files/application files. I would like for my workflow to automatically convert well on any RGB file.

[edwinb]

I waited to see if anyone else had suggestions that might be lower cost but the only thing I know that comes close to what your trying to do is a gmg colourserver which in my experiance consitently and accuratly converts pdf's as well as image formats and copes amazingly quick which huge numbers of files.
edwin