Hi,

I have done up a memorial card for my father who passed away last Christmas.

As I have no way of printing double sided and laminating and folding I have given the job over to a professional printer.
I have given a pdf file generated by Qimage from a photoshop .psd file to the printer as requested. I looks like the printer is
importing this into Adobe InDesign to print.

On the Qimage job properties I have a monitor ICC set and printer ICC set to 'let the printer/driver manage colour'
I have printed this on printers at work and printed a sample copy on a home epson using premium glossy paper for the printer to match. The result has always been similar in terms of colour.

I was shown a 'proof' this morning and was gutted. The whole thing was dull. The bright blue sky printed more like purple.
The printer has said he can "tweek" the colours but I now have no confidence in them whatsoever.

I'm sure the problem is something to do with colour profiles but I'm not sure if I am embedding some profile in the pdf file
or it's something the printer needs to do. I don't really understand what I need to or can do.
Can anyone give me some advice or some steps to try. As I'm sure you can appreciate it is really impoprtant for me and my family to have the colour right.

Thanks in advance
Seán Buckley

Hi Sean,
I have produced pdf documents with images using Qimage and PDF Creator. You don't say what application you are using to "print" the pdf from Qimage.
I too used "let the printer/driver manage colour"
You will need to set the PDF "printer" correctly too, see attachment below which shows the PDF Creator settings I used. They were arrived at after some experimentation and confirmed by another member of the forum.

I don't know if pdf files are capable of having embedded colour profiles and if the Adobe In Design is colour management aware. You would need to discuss the detail with the printer.

One other option would be to give the printer an image file (jpeg or tiff) by using the Qimage Print to File function. Ask the printer the preferred format and resolution required so you can set up PTF correctly.
The printer may even have a profile you can embed with PTF, otherwise just go for sRGB.
Terry.
PS. Who seems to have forgotten what we did - Fred! 

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the reply. Of course you are right. I printed to CutePDF driver via qimage.
I think I will have to find an alternative printer. Do you know if it's possible for me to have ebmedded a colour profile into the pdf file?

I went into the printers this morning with the same document in .psd .tiff .jpg but was assured they could change their settings and match my sample. I am not at all convinced. They are using a 4 colour printing press. It must be a RGB to CYMK conversion thing.

Seán

I have been playing with PDF creator, and the setting that produces the matching results seems to be (as Terry showed) ICM handled by host.
So far, I have not found anywhere that even mentions inserting or selecting a profile, unless this is done using Qimage and an embedded profile in the mother image.
After some experimenting;
It appears that you get the same PDF  regardless, so my guess is that it slips into sRGB.
Fred