Do you mean I should ask them for a profile (I’m presuming their profile will take account of the paper that they’re printing on) on say a CD to put into my computer. And then use it on my image file before outputting it to a CD to give them?
you would start the conversation by asking him what profile he uses (then CONVERT to that profile and give him your color in his work space)
That would be the "output profile" aka print space, his profile.
If they have a custom profile, they can email it to you.
Then CONVERT to the output profile (the print space) in Photoshop and give him your color in his color space, based on his output profile.
My guess is his profile is a standard sRGB profile (or one of the other common profiles Adobe gives you), but wouldn’t know until I asked the guy for his profile and looked at a finished print…
I think that he must be using a custom profile as the finished prints were to be on an art paper for display. Green leaves and grass were becoming Autumnal. I’ve tried printing on my 1290 changing the profile to sRGB and although there are differences the resultant print would have been acceptable to someone not knowing the original scene. I also use the 1290 in PS managing the colour and not the printer.
he may be using custom print profiles for various printers/papers/inks maybe your better option is to ask what color space (profile) he wants your file in (what is his native workspace)
he may not have clue what that means, in which case I would have him open Photoshop’s COLOR SETTINGS and tell you what his WORKING RGB is
at that point CONVERT to his Working RGB and deliver your file
if your color comes back unacceptable, I would not waste more time, find another print house…
what you are looking for is a printer whose workflow does one simple and direct CONVERSION:
your Source Space > to his Print Space
And hands you back your color faithfully printed
this is very simple in theory and exactly how Photoshop displays your file on the monitor, by a direct Source Space to Monitor Space CONVERSION
This has been a lesson in never taking anything for granted!
I had thought that it was reasonable to take my CD to a bureau but it turns out that the guy doing the printing hadn’t had any formal training. When I went to have a chat with him this morning he told me that he’d had five minutes along the lines of "you put their cd in here or their memory card in here and then press the print button".
So we looked through the system – PS6 settings included ‘allow printer to manage colour’ because he had thought that would be safest. We reset the profiles and colour space and out came a reasonable print!
Until I came along people had been accepting what he turned out for them and he appeared to be grateful for my small advice this morning. Just shows ‘in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king’.
Been an interesting ride, thanks for the help.
