Creating an RGB file for wide format print?

[wonderings]

We have a new Epson 9900 installed with a Fiery XF RIP. It is really nice and FAST compared to our old 10600. Anyways the question is not about the Epson, but about creating files from Adobe CC that retain their RGB value. So my knowledge on RGB is pretty much zero, always think CMYK for print. With the Epson and printing on a canvas stock or anything, I was told that RGB files would produce better colours for thinks like art reproduction.

I ran a test print of a high resolution image of the Mona Lisa (made it as a gift for my niece). I wanted to add crop marks to cut it down. Not sure if there is anyway to make crop marks in Photoshop, could not find it without manually making marks. I secondly tried Illustrator, place the jpeg in a page, made my blue and added crop marks. The document colour mode in Illustrator is set to RGB. I thought this would be it, nothing else needed. I was wrong. I made an .ai file and dropped it into the Fiery RIP. It seems that the .ai file gets converted to CMYK at the RIP. If I were to just drop the jpeg original file in the RIP it would be RGB.

How do you go about creating files for print on a wide format, keeping it RGB while making crop marks with bleed for cutting using apps in the Adobe CC?

 

[arossetti]

Your RIP will convert the RGB file to CMYK no matter what file format you have. It is just a matter of in what stage of the process it is happening and to what destination profile.

I would send a pdf to the RIP, not a native .ai file btw.

 

[DYP]

Make sure the RGB driver of your printer is selected in the output device.

Here are the setting you would use. The Fiery XF will then send native RGB to the Epson 9900 just like you OS level printer driver does. In fact you can use RGB Profile Connector to install your printer drivers RGB profiles for Fiery XF to use, or new RGB profiles you have created.

 

[BarbWPP]

If you place an RGB image into InDesign to make a pdf, be sure the settings under your pdf export window's output section are set to "Leave color unchanged" or InD is likely to convert to cmyk when exporting the pdf.

It can also help to, temporarily, turn off color management, first (Emulate InD 2.0 CMS off) - just remember to turn it back on when done or your future results will be different than expected! NO, it doesn't reset itself.

 

[gordo]

Does the flavor of RGB have importance? E.g. sRGB or?

 

[rich apollo]

1) Fiery XF can put crop marks on for you.

2) The point of submitting an RGB file to the RIP is to avoid compressing the gamut of the file before it gets to the RIP. The RIP is still converting the file into the colorspace of the output profile.

 

[mastegman]

Does the flavor of RGB have importance? E.g. sRGB or?

Yes, but it also depends on the Rendering Intent and the gamut of the printer/paper/ink combination. If you're doing 'pretty pictures' Perceptual is appropriate. This is the recommended option for printing photographs for end use as the gamuts are mapped to each other 'proportionately' and factors in our innate ability to chromatically adapt our perception of colour in a range of viewing conditions. In other words, we tend to see colours the same regardless of the light we view them under. However, if you want something that is colorimetrically accurate, for example, when proofing, and want to preserve the colour fidelity of the original then Relative or Absolute is better. Absolute will preserve the white point of the original image (whatever that may be). Relative will map it to the white point of the destination device.

This comes with qualifications. If the image is in Adobe RGB (1998) and has a larger gamut than the printer/paper/ink then you will get 'clipping' as a result of the gamut compression. This usually results in reddish fleshtones and oversaturated clean colours on smaller gamut devices. In other words, it will NOT match what you are seeing on screen. If the image is in sRGB it will more than likely have a gamut that is closer to the printer's gamut and will have more visually similarity. In the case of the EPSON 9900 it has a very wide gamut due to the 'high dynamic range' of its multicolour toners (10/11 in all including Green and Orange) and will render images in Adobe RGB in all there glorious colour most of the time. It should be remembered that Adobe RGB is a relatively large colour space which can't be rendered on most monitors. To work with this colour space you need a professional monitor (Eizo, NEC, Quato). Bottom line is that if you send an sRGB file to the printer using a colorimetric Rendering Intent it will more than likely match what you are seeing on screen and will be less problematic than Adobe RGB (19198) depending on your requirements: pretty pictures or colorimetrically accurate ones.

Mark Stegman

 

[wonderings]

1) Fiery XF can put crop marks on for you.

2) The point of submitting an RGB file to the RIP is to avoid compressing the gamut of the file before it gets to the RIP. The RIP is still converting the file into the colorspace of the output profile.

I did discover that. I am just so used to the workflow I have right now with PDF's. I rarely use photoshop and never used it for resizing files, but I do understand it now. I make my canvas size the finished size, plus the bleed I want and then add the crop marks in Fiery XF. Then I can just send a native PSD file and keep the RGB till the RIP converts.

 

[rich apollo]

You're going to run into trouble with that.

Import the Photoshop file into InDesign. Set up the proper page size and bleed. Then export a PDF. Use the PDF in Fiery. This way you can properly define the trim and bleed boxes of the PDF; that allows Fiery to place the crop marks on the trim.

I found that when I was hand-cutting inkjet prints I didn't need crop marks or bleed. I just aligned the straight-edge with the edge of the print. Plus, you never have crop marks on the last side.