Printing Images To A Commercial Printing Press; Preparing Images For Press; Set Output Options - Adobe Photoshop CS6 User Manual

Printing images to a commercial printing press

Preparing images for press

Set output options

Print separations from Photoshop
Prepare an image with spot channels for printing from another application
Create a color trap
Determine scan resolution for printing
Preparing images for press
From Photoshop, you can prepare image files for offset lithography, digital printing, gravure, and other commercial printing processes.
Generally, your workflow depends on the capabilities of the prepress facility. Before you begin a workflow for commercial printing, contact the
prepress staff to learn their requirements. For example, they may not want you to convert to CMYK at any point because they may need to use
prepress-specific settings. Here are some possible scenarios for preparing your image files to achieve predictable printing results:
Work entirely in RGB mode and make sure that the image file is tagged with the RGB working space profile. If your printer or prepress staff
use a color management system, they should be able to use your file's profile to make an accurate conversion to CMYK before producing the
film and printing plates.
Work in RGB mode until you finish editing your image. Then convert the image to CMYK mode and make any additional color and tonal
adjustments. Especially check the highlights and shadows of the image. Use Levels, Curves, or Hue/Saturation adjustment layers to make
corrections. These adjustments should be very minor. Flatten the file if necessary, then send the CMYK file to the professional printer.
Place your RGB or CMYK image in Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator. In general, most images printed on a commercial press are not
printed directly from Photoshop but from a page-layout program like Adobe InDesign or an illustration program like Adobe Illustrator. For
more information on importing Photoshop files into Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator, see Adobe InDesign Help or the Adobe Illustrator
Help.
Here are a few issues to keep in mind when you work on an image intended for commercial printing:
If you know the characteristics of the press, you can specify the highlight and shadow output to preserve certain details.
If you use a desktop printer to preview the appearance of the final printed piece, keep in mind that a desktop printer cannot faithfully replicate
the output of a commercial printing press. A professional color proof gives a more accurate preview of the final printed piece.
If you have a profile from a commercial press, you can choose it with the Proof Setup command and then view a soft proof using the Proof
Colors command. Use this method to preview the final printed piece on your monitor.
Note: Some printers may prefer to receive your documents in PDF format, especially if the documents need to conform to PDF/X standards.
See Save in Photoshop PDF format.
Set output options
If you are preparing your images for commercial printing directly from Photoshop, you can select and preview a variety of page marks and other
output options using the Print command. Generally, these output options should be specified only by prepress professionals or people
knowledgeable about the commercial printing process.
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