If there could be a generic profile that all bodies would believe in we would cease strife and have a peaceful....and successful digital world. Every photographer would produce work to this standard or not be professionally recognised, and every printer, magazine and client would know what they were being provided and would have no excuses for shoddy work or be able to shift blame to the poor smudgers.
Dear Paul
Oh what a wonderful world that would be wouldn't it, but in all honesty I just do not see that happening sad to say. This is not pouring water on the good work that is being done and has been done to move the horse....perhaps ass would be a more appropriate animal. You know what they say, you can take a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Anyone who has tried to make a horse do anything it does not want to will understand the truth in that!
To make this work will need the majority of the industry to accept that colour management does work and that they need not fear it but should embrace it. With so many running a non colour managed workflow, and many operating in situations where standards are low, and knowledge lacking, we are really up against it.
Honestly, I wish I had the answer to the problem but don't. My own answer here was to accept that however well I did my job, the images were unlikely to not reach the paper as intended so I work with the system. Several years ago we put in a rip and printer (now of course updated at considerable cost) that was known and respected by many in the print/repro world, and usually supply our files in CMYK together with a contract proof. Whilst not foolproof it does clearly demonstrate to the recipients how those actual files should print.
As a side note on the question of clients accepting digital files. I made the decision that we would only offer digital output some seven years ago, and since that time no transparencies have been supplied to clients. Yes we shoot film, process it here and of course drum scan it, but clients only get digital output.....there is no choice offered. This is simply because I believe they get a better product that way, with far more chance of it reproducing correctly than if they had film.
Cheers
Richard
PS I have corrected the spelling in the subject line to Standards for the sake of searches in the archives.
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