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I am sending some images to a small town newspaper for an equally small client. I was avidly following the thread on newspaper profiles until I spoke with the "technical" guy at the paper. The idea of a profile was foreign to him as were the terms "ink limits" and "dot gain". They use something called Intellitune (sp?) to process everything they get whether CMYK or RGB. He suggested sending a "nice, clear image. RGB or CMYK we'll adjust it either way". I know the paper has very inconsistent reproduction ranging from acceptable to horrible.

Any suggestions on what to supply? I'm thinking of sending a flavor of Newspaper CMYK along with a LAB version of each image.

Ric Cohn

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hello ric, are you simply sending images that are to print in the paper.. or are you building display ads that contain color images/pdf?... previous comments from rob were: med-gcr, 100% black limit, 32% dot gain and a 5/2/2/0 highlight...ink limit 240.. first I would call the "tech guy" and beg for them to run my images without the 'intellitune' processing....I also would stay away from the med GCR---light? depending our your image/need to maintain neutrals?, change the 100%k to something like 85... planning to beef up the Kchannel later, forget the 3/2/2 highlight, let it go to 0/0/0/0.. the paper is not bright enough to cause any real problems..and depending on the image.. you could stick your neck out to about 260 if needed... and I would consider the 32 percent gain as a minimum... 35 may not be too much... 'better thin than sorry'... and again depending on the image, I would not fail to hammer the k plate with sharpening... you will be hard pressed to over-sharpen that plate... and if you can find a profile associated with your cmyk file... remove it.... the intellitune may give you more help than you can tolerate...regards, jm bean

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Hello,

I wouldn't recommend setting a highlight of 0/0/0/0 for a color picture printing on newsprint without first checking to see what kind of press is used. At the paper that I'm at, they use a flexo press which wouldn't do justice to highlights like that. Highlights abruptly drop out at 4-5% which looks worse than it sounds. Imagine a gradation of 20% - 0%, only at 5% it comes to a complete visual hault. If care isn't given to where the lighter tones are ending, color pictures can look "splotchy," especially in faces, light clothing and even the sky.

Sincerely,

Gerry Shamray

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I am 'assuming' the small town press would prefer the 0/0/0.. I could be wrong.. but another suggestion would be to recommend strictly BW imaging... especially if the images are small.. registration issues... a nice bw would also offer the advantage of larger ad/image for for the same or less money... and many times far better quality... regards, jim bean

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I did a quick google on Intellitune, it's from Agfa, but couldn't find much info on it. http://tinyurl.com/34eef

It seems to support colour profiles but I couldn't figure out which versions support them, so it may depend on what version they are using (it's up to version 3.1 now), so a tagged image may go through ok.

Myself, I'd send sRGB.

...Jono

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Am I missing something? Wouldn't sending sRGB leave the CMYK conversion process *completely* in the hands of the newspaper's prepress department? You could end up with something so bad that the client won't pay for it.

Rob Perry

West. Prod. Publ.

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The images are for what is essentially an "advertorial". They provide the "story" about the business and we supply the pictures. The page is color, which actually works better for the subject matter. I'll ask (but don't expect a knowledgeable reply) about a 0/0/0 white. I think it's subject specific, since I agree you wouldn't want to hit up against a smooth highlight gradation in the image.

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions.

Ric Cohn

www.riccohn.com

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Hi Ric,

I think that Intellitune is something like a program we used years ago at Pacific Press called ScanPrep. It's designed for newspapers who have nobody on staff who know anything about dot gain, USM, ink limits, etc. All of these parameters are set permanently into the program by the installer after press tests are made.

If you send programs like this a CMYK it will change it back to a RGB and then re-separate.

Your best bet would be to send the first image sRGB with only a small amount of sharpening (Intellitune probably has built in USM and doesn't allow input from pre-press). I'd also make sure the picture is a bit lighter than normal in the shadows but not in the highlights because if the program is anything like ScanPrep it will probably try to set the highlight at 0/0/0/0.

Regards, John

John Denniston

www.dirtbikephoto.com

www.dennistonphoto.com

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Ric,

You may be in trouble no matter what you do, based on your description of the technical guy's response.

If he's unwilling/unable to give you specifics, then give him what he prefers and hold him to it. Don't pay if you're not happy.

I manage the Imaging department at a smaller newspaper, and despite any amount of technical 'magic', this always holds true: garbage in, garbage out.

Sharply focused images, with a full tonal range and plenty of shadow detail will reproduce on nearly anything (but I'll bet you knew that!)

Agfa Intellitune, as I understand it, corrects the individual defects of each photo it works on. Unfortunately, the true test of good reproduction is whether or not photos are corrected to 'match' the rest of the images on the page. Most people, looking at a page with 5 photos with five different skin tone 'balances' won't know WHAT is wrong, but they realize something is up. For my money, there are better ways to streamline workflow.

Anyway, best of luck...

Jim.

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It sounds like Intellitune is going to mangle whatever you send it, whether it is cmyk or not. I have no idea what it is going to do when it hits a cmyk image, but it is going to try and reseparate it somehow.

It's probably geared towards making rgb images look nice. Just my thoughts about it, I'm in prepress btw.

The suggestions in John Denniston's message sound good to me.

...Jono

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Yes, John's comments clear up my confusion.

BTW Jono, I wasn't knocking prepress, I'm in prepress too. I was just suggesting that an outfit that doesn't know its dot gain from its ink limit would probably mangle and RGB conversion unless they were using a tried and true method.

Tx,

rjp

wpp

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John-

Thanks for the heads-up on this. I spoke to the "technical" guy and indeed they do have intellitune set to convert cmyk to rgb, adjust the file and then reconvert to cmyk. "So it doesn't matter what you sent us, whatever you want to send will be fine"!! I guess I'll give them sRGB. For this use, prepping CMYK and trying to get them not to touch the files seems like a recipe for disaster.

Thanks again to all who responded with great info and advice.

Ric Cohn

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Don't feel bad Ric,

It appears that sooner or later, we'll all have to succumb to this "automatic transmission" approach to printing color. This isn't always bad, however. Most people don't like to drive with a stick shift, and there was a time when every car came with a hand crank, even after the introduction of the electric starter. With convenience comes the absence of choice.

Eventually, if it isn't already, software like Intellitune will be smart enough for most people to get good results almost all of the time and great results will be increasingly elusive.

As for myself, one of my cars has a manual transmission, and there were a few times in my life when a crank would've been a real help!

john castronovo

tech photo & imaging