Quoting Ian Goodrick: > Has anyone got experience of preping files for printing on a Chromira LED > printer. > So its 300dpi but what colourspace? > USM?
Ian: I prep files for a chromira at my local lab. It's much the same as any other RGB device. The best method is to work in your preferred color space (AdobeRGB, ColormatchRGB, or sRGB, etc.) until the last couple of steps (convert to profile, and sharpening). I do most files at 300ppi, though I've had to "rez-up" so files to get that ppi at actual size for some larger prints (20 x 24's etc). I've not played with that number much, but would guess you can get away with a bit less... though you'll want to test before you commit. I've just never run the tests. It's best if you can get the lab to have the device profiled for each paper type they are running. My lab is printing to Fuji-Crystal Archive, and at one point had three profiles for gloss, lustre and matte. They just reprofiled after Fuji changed the Crystal Archive paper, and now only have one (optimized for lustre, their most popular paper choice) ;-( It's profiles will be no good for another lab printing on Kodak, Ilford, or other color paper, so no sense asking them for samples. In the beginning, before they had the device profiled, I took my standard RGB color test target, and had them print out a print, "as-is" no manipulation. Then I created an "adjustment layer" using the curves feature to get the image on screen to look like the output I'd received. Not rocket science, but a start until you have a profile to work from. As for sharpening, this is a situation where "less is more." If you are used to sharpening for prepress this is the other end of the extreme. It's impossible to tell without running some tests, as I have not idea what size files you are starting with, or what kind of native sharpness exists. Film scans with not sharpening will need more than Jpeg images out of a digital camera. What I can suggest is that you ask the lab to do the print, "AS-IS" no sharpening. I was having some problems with my lab, as depending on the operator, they were applying different levels of machine sharpening to the image. If I got a result I liked, and sent the file back for more prints, the result migth be wildly different. I finally decided rather than have to "guess" which level they might use it would be easier to tell them to turn it off, that way I could compare the print out to the image on screen and draw some one-to-one comparisons. If anyone is in the states and wants to check out the lab, drop me a line. Hope that helps. David -- Creating an image database? visit (http://ControlledVocabulary.com/) and join the discussion list, or read areview of the Image Info Toolkit utility at: (http://ControlledVocabulary.com/imagedatabases/imageinfotoolkit.html) David Riecks http://www.riecks.com - http://zillionbucks.com =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
