They bought her a very expensive scanner and they expect great scans. She gets them great scans but also spends a lot of time tweaking each scan. Sometimes she even works at home. But here is what really bothers Susan: "My scans don't exactly look like originals and sometimes they come out wierd looking in brochures. It must've been those guys in prepress department doing something wrong..."
"My scans don't exactly
look like originals..."
Charlotte should know:
Her scanner makes scans look certain way and her monitor interprets that image in it's own way. This does not mean that those devices are bad - they just have to be calibrated. Anyway, most likely all the scanning and adjusting was in RGB color mode. Trouble is if she sends images as RGB to the prepress department because they gonna need them in CMYK color mode. It is going to be up to the setings in their Photoshop so the conversion from RGB to CMYK goes fine. Even if they let layout program (Quark, PageMaker, InDesign) do the conversion, it is very important how their settings are. So, Charlotte should know destination for her images and make all the conversions by herself or establish color communication with prepress department. In order to do that she has to start running color management.
Solution 1: Eye-One iProof: This is an affordable package which can close all the gaps between her scanner and monitor and prepress department. This would make her scanner to produce true to original scans and her monitor would accurately display images. She can do the conversion from RGB to CMYK on her station or if PrePress department is also color managed than she can even live scans in RGB color mode. On the other hand PrePress department would be able, with the same equipment to color profile final outout device and their proofers. After profiling all devices, profiles can be shared, all the applications set with the same workflow and Color would be predictable for everybody. learn more / buy ...
Solution 2: Eye-One Publish Pro bundle: This solution is very similar to the one above with the advantage that you have more control over the creation and managing Color profiles using ProfileMaker 4.1 Profesional software (ink limit, profile size, separation control, black generation, gray balance, advanced monitor options and more) learn more / buy ...