8 bit, 16 bit TIFF, four color process printing

NT
Posted By
norman_turner
Feb 4, 2007
Views
480
Replies
7
Status
Closed
Preparing RAW files for CMYK four color commercial process printing, I’m converting them to TIFF’s and after minimal doctoring saving them in Photoshop CS2 as PSD’s for eventual use in InDesign. This results in files of roughly 60 megs.

Question: Should the TIFF’s be 8 bit or 16 bit?

I’ve read that so much is lost with the CMYK four color process that massive 16 bit files don’t make much sense.
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16-bit bit color print process tiff

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H
Ho
Feb 4, 2007
Convert to 8bits.
BL
Bob Levine
Feb 4, 2007
I’ve read that so much is lost with the CMYK four color process that massive 16 bit files don’t make much sense.

Actually, they don’t make any sense.

Bob
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Feb 4, 2007
16 bit is for editing headroom only. One can’t see the difference on screen or in print.

Rob
NT
norman_turner
Feb 4, 2007
I’d say this is a fairly definitive response. Thanks to all three.
J
JasonSmith
Feb 4, 2007
If the images are going on the cover of Life magazine, maybe you’d see a difference between 16 and 8 bit. Other than that, it’s a waste of data.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Feb 6, 2007
If the images are going on the cover of Life magazine, maybe you’d see a difference

If that were the case, you ‘d see it big time on a monitor screen. (this 16 bit is about redundant colour depth, not resolution).

Rob
BL
Bob Levine
Feb 6, 2007
And 16 bit file will not necessarily play nice with pagelayout apps. I know they don’t work very well with InDesign.

Bob

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