Colors dark when exporting to EPS

[Andrew Glennie]

People,

Wonder if anyone can assist with this problem. For some time now I've been
creating work which ulimately gets printed to a Roland CAMMJET and sometime in
the last 12 months, I found that the outputs have become darker and lack any
'bite'. I have downloaded a couple of print proof sheet (including one by
Roland), and the printer is not at fault. A CMYK conversion of the RGB proof
sheets indicate that a CMYK profile should be lighter. So I'm wondering what my
copy of MX1101A (Mac version) is doing. In the most recent example, all the
colors are created from within Freehand and are all RGB colors (because the
recommendation from Roland is to use a RGB profile to get brighter colors. Yet
when the EPS is created to send to the Roland (Windows based), the image is
darker and all the bright bits are dull. Color settings have been fiddled with
to try to see if these are the cause of the problem, with the result that the
Monitor Simulates setting is set to none. Opening an EPS file in Photoshop also
shows the loss of color (remembering to not let PS use the embedded profile)

Any ideas on why Freehand is doing this? Is a profile getting embedded despite
my best efforts?

Andrew

[Judy Arndt]

Did you see Bob Meador's recent post?

Try making all the colors RGB *process*. Use an RGB black (r0 g0 b0) instead
of default Black. Then export to EPS with conversion to RGB.

Have you experimented with color management set to 'None'?

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.2


Andrew Glennie wrote:

> Wonder if anyone can assist with this problem. For some time now I've been
> creating work which ulimately gets printed to a Roland CAMMJET and sometime in
> the last 12 months, I found that the outputs have become darker and lack any
> 'bite'. I have downloaded a couple of print proof sheet (including one by
> Roland), and the printer is not at fault. A CMYK conversion of the RGB proof
> sheets indicate that a CMYK profile should be lighter. So I'm wondering what
> my copy of MX1101A (Mac version) is doing. In the most recent example, all the
> colors are created from within Freehand and are all RGB colors (because the
> recommendation from Roland is to use a RGB profile to get brighter colors. Yet
> when the EPS is created to send to the Roland (Windows based), the image is
> darker and all the bright bits are dull. Color settings have been fiddled with
> to try to see if these are the cause of the problem, with the result that the
> Monitor Simulates setting is set to none. Opening an EPS file in Photoshop
> also shows the loss of color (remembering to not let PS use the embedded
> profile)

[Dinsdale]

Judy,

Hadn't seen the earlier post. But I had been thinking of making the
colour process. Colour management set to none seems to have an over
bright effect. However, I redid the export and open in Photoshop thing
and the problem had gone away at least on my machine. So now I am
looking at a problem at the Roland end - it has a RIP which I suspect is
doing something horrid, so I''m going to use the Roland forums now.

Thanks.

Andrew

Judy Arndt wrote:

> Did you see Bob Meador's recent post?
>
> Try making all the colors RGB *process*. Use an RGB black (r0 g0 b0) instead
> of default Black. Then export to EPS with conversion to RGB.
>
> Have you experimented with color management set to 'None'?
>
> Judy Arndt

[Dinsdale]

Judy,

I tried the Color Management to 'None' and the problem went away -
thanks for the tip. Wonder why Macromedia bother with Color Management
if it doesn't work.

However, there is a graphic created in Freehand which still comes out
dark on the RIP. I create a star, extrude it, then apply 2 bends to
create a splash effect. Although it appears OK on the final EPS file,
when sent to the printer through the RIP, it all goes dark. I pulled the
EPS file into Corel Paint on the RIP machine, resaved it as a new EPS
file, and the color came back. So I think Freehand is doing something to
the graphic when it produces the EPS file.

Any ideas anyone?

Andrew

Judy Arndt wrote:

> Did you see Bob Meador's recent post?
>
> Try making all the colors RGB *process*. Use an RGB black (r0 g0 b0) instead
> of default Black. Then export to EPS with conversion to RGB.
>
> Have you experimented with color management set to 'None'?
>
> Judy Arndt

[Judy Arndt]

Okay, there is definitely a problem when exporting a Mac EPS with any RGB
rasterized image, and that includes any Raster Effect. Vector objects will
be bright but the RGB raster images will have been run through a CMYK color
wringer.

Try exporting as a Photoshop 4/5 RGB EPS. This seems to be holding the RGB
values correctly.

Dinsdale wrote:

> Judy,
>
> I tried the Color Management to 'None' and the problem went away -
> thanks for the tip. Wonder why Macromedia bother with Color Management
> if it doesn't work.
>
> However, there is a graphic created in Freehand which still comes out
> dark on the RIP. I create a star, extrude it, then apply 2 bends to
> create a splash effect. Although it appears OK on the final EPS file,
> when sent to the printer through the RIP, it all goes dark. I pulled the
> EPS file into Corel Paint on the RIP machine, resaved it as a new EPS
> file, and the color came back. So I think Freehand is doing something to
> the graphic when it produces the EPS file.
>
> Any ideas anyone?
>
> Andrew
>
> Judy Arndt wrote:

>> Did you see Bob Meador's recent post?
>>
>> Try making all the colors RGB *process*. Use an RGB black (r0 g0 b0) instead
>> of default Black. Then export to EPS with conversion to RGB.
>>
>> Have you experimented with color management set to 'None'?
>>
>> Judy Arndt

>

[Judy Arndt]

Oh no! Spoke too soon! The Photoshop 4/5 EPS export doesn't preserve RGB
values of Raster Effects! The old CMYK color wringer reared its ugly head
again. :(

You would have to first convert any Raster Effects to images before export.
In that case you might as well just export as TIFF and forget the EPS format
altogether. I suggest you use the 24-bit TIFF export as 8-bit dithers
colors.

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.2





Judy Arndt wrote:

> Okay, there is definitely a problem when exporting a Mac EPS with any RGB
> rasterized image, and that includes any Raster Effect. Vector objects will
> be bright but the RGB raster images will have been run through a CMYK color
> wringer.
>
> Try exporting as a Photoshop 4/5 RGB EPS. This seems to be holding the RGB
> values correctly.
>
> Dinsdale wrote:
>

>> Judy,
>>
>> I tried the Color Management to 'None' and the problem went away -
>> thanks for the tip. Wonder why Macromedia bother with Color Management
>> if it doesn't work.
>>
>> However, there is a graphic created in Freehand which still comes out
>> dark on the RIP. I create a star, extrude it, then apply 2 bends to
>> create a splash effect. Although it appears OK on the final EPS file,
>> when sent to the printer through the RIP, it all goes dark. I pulled the
>> EPS file into Corel Paint on the RIP machine, resaved it as a new EPS
>> file, and the color came back. So I think Freehand is doing something to
>> the graphic when it produces the EPS file.
>>
>> Any ideas anyone?
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>> Judy Arndt wrote:

>>> Did you see Bob Meador's recent post?
>>>
>>> Try making all the colors RGB *process*. Use an RGB black (r0 g0 b0) instead
>>> of default Black. Then export to EPS with conversion to RGB.
>>>
>>> Have you experimented with color management set to 'None'?
>>>
>>> Judy Arndt

>>

>

[Dinsdale]

Thanks Judy.

Unfortunately, I need to export as EPS as the file is a bottle label
going to a Roland Printer/Cutter and the Cut Profile can only be
embedded in an EPS file. Other formats lose the cut profile. Many swear
words:-) I'll try the raster effects conversion.

Thanks for all your assistance.

Andrew

Judy Arndt wrote:

> Oh no! Spoke too soon! The Photoshop 4/5 EPS export doesn't preserve RGB
> values of Raster Effects! The old CMYK color wringer reared its ugly head
> again. :(
>
> You would have to first convert any Raster Effects to images before export.
> In that case you might as well just export as TIFF and forget the EPS format
> altogether. I suggest you use the 24-bit TIFF export as 8-bit dithers
> colors.
>
> Judy Arndt