LR4 and Blurb

[digitaldog]

Hence the question... what do you recommend as a best process then, Andrew?

You can soft proof the CMYK in Photoshop but the question remains about the profile Blurb supplies.

[wolfnowl]

Thanks for the information!  Was kind of wondering about that since (as I understanding it) Blurb uses more than one printing company...

Mike.

[digitaldog]

Thanks for the information!  Was kind of wondering about that since (as I understanding it) Blurb uses more than one printing company...

Even if it is the same company, it is certainly more than one press! As someone who’s spent a lot of time trying to get multiple digital presses to produce the same (within a reasonable dE) output over time, I can tell you it is not easy and takes a lot of process control and tracking. Plus each paper has to have it’s own profiles. I have no idea how many papers Blurb offers but the idea that one profile could be used for soft proofing doesn’t wash, you can’t separate to those papers with a single profile.

[wolfnowl]

So, basically, if you're printing a book forget about softproofing?

On the Blurb site it says:

"Color Management: Controlling variables between screen and print

We’ve created this resource center because we understand how important your images are to you. Print on demand (POD) technology has come a long way, but still has a way go to match true offset quality. Results can be amazing, but getting an image you like – from your back-lit RGB monitor to a book printed on a CMYK printer – can sometimes be a challenge. Several variables come into play between your monitor and our global print network. In POD, books – covers and pages – are printed on different print devices, which means that even though everything is calibrated to the Blurb ICC Profile, variables are a given. Controlling as many variables as possible is what color management is all about.

With a properly calibrated monitor to accurately soft proof your images, using the Blurb ICC Profile helps you manage color more closely. Before embarking on setting up a color-managed workflow, please set your expectations appropriately. It is simply not possible for POD printers to duplicate the finely controlled color management that is possible with offset printing, so some slight hue differences may appear from book to book."

and

"The Blurb ICC Profile is based on the GRACoL2009 reference used in high-end commercial printing. Using this profile allows you to soft proof your images while in RGB or to convert your images to the CMYK color space of the print device."

Mike.

P.S. Sent an e-mail to the folks at Blurb Support to ask their opinion.

[Rhossydd]

So, basically, if you're printing a book forget about softproofing?

Not really. Remember that you have to submit to Blurb in sRGB, so even if you can't perform an absolute perfect workflow of soft proofing to the actual printer's profile, you should still have a look at how things will look in sRGB.

I wonder if Adobe have missed a trick here with their implementation of soft proofing. Many users will only be interested in sRGB output, whether on the web, by email, printing by outside printers or via book publishers. Maybe they should have included a global "Show images in sRGB" option that would work across all modules. There will still be people getting surprises by the change in output colour even with the soft proof option only in Develop.

[digitaldog]

Not really. Remember that you have to submit to Blurb in sRGB, so even if you can't perform an absolute perfect workflow of soft proofing to the actual printer's profile, you should still have a look at how things will look in sRGB.

The issue with the “just send us sRGB but soft proof with some profile” is you can’t control the rendering intent, BPC and really have no idea if said profile describes the process or will be used. So it is half baked. As I mentioned a few times, we have no clue about this Blurb ICC profile in terms of what it really describes.

I wonder if Adobe have missed a trick here with their implementation of soft proofing. Many users will only be interested in sRGB output, whether on the web, by email, printing by outside printers or via book publishers.

You can do this. Just select sRGB as you would any other profile. You’ll see the sRGB values and histogram you’d get IF you export in sRGB.

[Rhossydd]

You can do this. Just select sRGB as you would any other profile.

Really?? Did you miss the word "global" in there Andrew ?
I'm talking about only displaying images in sRGB across the entire program, library, develop, slideshow....... everywhere.

[digitaldog]

Really?? Did you miss the word "global" in there Andrew ?
I'm talking about only displaying images in sRGB across the entire program, library, develop, slideshow....... everywhere.

Yes, what you wrote wasn’t at all clear:I wonder if Adobe have missed a trick here with their implementation of soft proofing. Many users will only be interested in sRGB output, whether on the web, by email, printing by outside printers or via book publishers.

You did mention soft proofing, that IS possible with sRGB.

[Rhossydd]

what you wrote wasn’t at all clear

Especially if you mis-quote me
The whole paragraph is clear enough.

[digitaldog]

Especially if you mis-quote me

Sorry, my copy and paste must be broken <g>.