General Print Standard

SL2014

Member
I hope this is the correct forum, please advise if not.
We are a commercial Photography Studio shooting a wide range of products
and are in the process of upgrading old equipment.
We have been using an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 with the Colorburst rip using the supplied
SP4800 SWOP Epson Proofing White Semimatte PK.icc
and the supplied Colorburst SP4800 SWOP Epson Proofing White Semimatte PK.env
to produce a simulated SWOP proof for printed materials.
We send images to customers and they are printed on a wide variety of presses.
Would SWOP still a good go by or should we be using GRACoL or other standard as a go by?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a general target for printed materials in North America?



 
I hope this is the correct forum, please advise if not.
We are a commercial Photography Studio shooting a wide range of products
and are in the process of upgrading old equipment.
We have been using an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 with the Colorburst rip using the supplied
SP4800 SWOP Epson Proofing White Semimatte PK.icc
and the supplied Colorburst SP4800 SWOP Epson Proofing White Semimatte PK.env
to produce a simulated SWOP proof for printed materials.
We send images to customers and they are printed on a wide variety of presses.
Would SWOP still a good go by or should we be using GRACoL or other standard as a go by?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a general target for printed materials in North America?


Is your photography destined for publications/heatset web (SWOP) or sheetfed offset (GRACoL)?
 
Thanks for your quick response. It can vary. I was really looking for a good general standard as the customers use a variety of printers.
 
Thanks for your quick response. It can vary. I was really looking for a good general standard as the customers use a variety of printers.

Then I would suggest targeting GRACoL 2006 and either deliver images as RGB Adobe 1998. sRGB is the standard on the interwebs so some companies increasingly work with sRGB so that they don't have to worry about working with different flavours of RGB since sRGB can be used for both print and web. I wouldn't deliver CMYK to printshops if I can avoid it.

On a sidebar, I'm sometimes asked to "fix" photos like the below, taken for and submitted to magazines (left original, right "fixed"):

Chops_zpspwaaywdr.jpg
 
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Yikes and yum. How did you get the detail back in that jam at the top? It's just not there, at least not in the lo-res jpg posted. Localised adjustment layers? Actually painting some of it?
 
Thanks for the info. I feel you pain! I worked for many years dealing with files supplied by Photographers, which we always had to tweak. That’s why I would like to feel any files we supply would need minimal adjustments. Nice job making the food look edible! As i mentioned, we have been using Colorburst rip and have been happy with the relatively easy set up and maintenance. We are looking at Overdrive which is the next generation from Colorburst. Any recommendations
on a relatively easy set up accurate rip?
 
Yikes and yum. How did you get the detail back in that jam at the top? It's just not there, at least not in the lo-res jpg posted. Localised adjustment layers? Actually painting some of it?


The original image (left side) was actually CMYK. My main tool to fix it was HDR (Photomatix). HDR is great for exaggerating small differences in image tones and that's what helped reveal detail. I also did multiple layers set to "Screen" in PShop. You do what you need to do to make it work.
 

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