Colours printing out weird...

Tash

Member
Ok I'm sure there's an easy fix here and I'm just being thick but I've just designed a poster in Indesign...
I created some 3d text in blender, imported it into photoshop for some basic levels editing, made sure it was CMYK, saved it, then imported it into indesign to design the rest of it...in a CMYK colour profile.

I printed it out via 'preview' first and it turned out like this:


Tried printing it out from Indesign instead and it came out like this:


at least the colours were the right ones but the 'squeeze' part is WAY too dark still.

This is what I want it to look like:





I know that this is probably a basic thing to know, but I am a newbie :icon_rolleyes: and pretty much all my design work so far has been for web. I'm just not entirely sure what I've done wrong as the colour settings in photoshop and indesign (so far as i can tell) are the same?
 
Try exporting to a PDF before you print and check the colours are correct there. I always seem have problems printing directly from InDesign but printing from a PDF normally sorts it.
 
As Paul said.. try PDF but it could simply be down to that the computer isnt configured with the printer
 
Ok I'm sure there's an easy fix here and I'm just being thick but I've just designed a poster in Indesign...
I created some 3d text in blender, imported it into photoshop for some basic levels editing, made sure it was CMYK, saved it, then imported it into indesign to design the rest of it...in a CMYK colour profile.

I printed it out via 'preview' first and it turned out like this:


Tried printing it out from Indesign instead and it came out like this:


at least the colours were the right ones but the 'squeeze' part is WAY too dark still.

This is what I want it to look like:





I know that this is probably a basic thing to know, but I am a newbie :icon_rolleyes: and pretty much all my design work so far has been for web. I'm just not entirely sure what I've done wrong as the colour settings in photoshop and indesign (so far as i can tell) are the same?

Hi there,

Just spotted your issue here and thought I'd try and help. To me, it looks like the colours you are trying to achieve are not really possible out of CMYK, they are screen colours - RGB, created from light rather than ink, so difficult to reproduce. If you usually design for the web rather than print you will not have come across this problem before, but it is quite common. You don't say where you are printing this out, if you are using a home printer, you could try working in RGB rather than CMYK and see what happens. If you want these printed professionally, you would be better to try and look at a CMYK swatch book and choose your colours from there.

I would avoid using "preview" ever as that often causes problems as you can see. You could create a PDF but depending on the settings, this could also produce unexpected results. The Indesign version looks like a correct conversion of the bright RGB one. If you want a lighter blue, I'd suggest trying it with no magenta in the blue mix, and only about 50% cyan. It's probably trial and error really.

I hope this helps

Claire
 
Brilliant! thanks so much for all your help! I had a friend print it out and hers came out much better than mine did on my printer. I think it's a combination of what Claire said and a not brilliant printer - really need to invest in a better one but I've hardly ever needed one before. I'll look into getting a CMYK swatch book as I can see it coming extremely handy in the future!! The client has printed it out himself on photographic paper and it's come out alright - it's still a little darker than I'd have liked personally but he's really happy with it so as long as he's happy that's what matters :)
 
and the problem strikes again... i think there is just something really up with my computer or my print settings - Basically - I printed off a pdf from the web (not via preview as I know that screws up the colours).... the document consisted of two colours: blue and grey. The titles and graphics were blue, the writing was grey.
So i print it off.... all the titles and graphics printed out grey, all the writing has come out blue!??!?!? I don't know wtf is going on - i even pulled out the cartridges to make sure I hadn't done something really special and put them in the wrong way round or something, but it seems everything is as it should be?! I am so confused there are not enough words. Anyone??
 
This won't be a physical issue - ie. ink or printer fault. It'll probably be a driver or colour management issue. Print from Acrobat, on the print menu click on advanced and try with either the printer managing colour or acrobat managing colour and see if that makes any difference. If you still see apparently random colour changes, assuming your screen isn't set up in a barmy way, try updating/replacing the printer driver. If that still doesn't resolve it, fetch a hammer and give it a long hard talking to.
 
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