How do I decide which PDF version for print?

Question

Hi
I'm almost finished this project and have another issue with printing.  The colours aren't matching.  I've used 'Kuler' for all my CYMK colours and for whatever reason, I can't nail the colours in my test runs and the client isn't happy.  There are so many options when exporting to Acrobat and I'm thinking this may have something to do with this....dunno ;-)).
Any ideas?

Answer 1

There are a lot of small problems in your workflow which could add up to big problems on the output end.
Calibrating via the OSX software calibrator is better than doing nothing, but it's not likely as good as a hardware calibrator because it's depending on your empirical judgements rather than a colorimeter reading.
On the other end is the proof you are getting a contract proof? If you are using the default US Web SWOP CMYK profile does the proof match those printing conditions?
The bigger problems are with Kuler. Neither the AIR app or the web app are color managed, so in its color picker there's no way to know how the conversion to the displayed CMYK numbers was made, or what CMYK device is targeted (US SWOP, US Sheetfed, Euroscale?). When you view the swatches in Kuler you are seeing them in your monitor RGB space. When you port the swatches into ID they come in as the listed CMYK values, which are displayed via your doc's CMYK profile, so you won't get a match and the preview will change depending on the profile.
Also, the Kuler CMYK values have a huge amount of black in them—significantly more than you would get making the conversions in PS or ID with any of the default profiles.I think you would likely get better CMYK values by screen capturing the swatches in the Kuler app (OSX captures get tagged with your monitor profile), convert the capture to CMYK in PS using your destination CMYK profile, and use the resulting CMYK values in your ID doc.