I want my blue to print blue and not purple

[Betty]

Red rover, red rover, send Kevy Baby on over. ;)

Or anyone else with commercial printer knowledge.

I am doing a new print project (in photoshop) involving mid and dark blues in a gradient. I want to make sure they print up blue and not purple.

At one point, someone told me to make sure I keep a certain perent difference between magenta and cyan (I think it was).

Can you help me out here?

Is there a color profile you recommend?

[Kevy Baby]

The only color profile to use is the printer's: there is no "magic bullet" profile.

How are you getting this image reproduced? Thousands printed either lithographically or digitally? If the former, you should be able to get a high-resolution color proof (often referred to as a Matchprint, but this name, like Kleenex, is actually a brand name that is oft used generically). If digitally, you should be able to get a First Article Proof - basically a "press proof" off of the machine printing the file.

Tell me a little more about what you are doing (how you are reproducing the image) and I can help you a little more.

[Betty]

I broke out my CMYK color book that I'd forgotten I'd ordered when my last project was more purple then I'd expected so I think I'm good. Yay!

I'm printing up letterhead, business cards and envelopes to be followed soon with a multi page book... still need to find someone who can do a short run and spiral bind it for me. ( my usual printer doesn't offer spiral binding - even though their sample book is bound that way. grrrr. )

The cost of the printing is so low, and they charge $15 for a printed proof, which is almost as much as the business cards themselves are. Plus - this needs to be done very quickly which doesn't leave much time for them to ship things to me twice. (once for proof and another for product).

When I'd said color profie, I didn't really mean that. What I meant was for color swatches in photoshop. There is no CMYK color swatch option. I would love to have a pallete I can just leave there and know that those colors will "work" well with CMYK.

[Kevy Baby]

You should convert your images to CMYK (Image > Mode > CMYK Color) while working on them in Photoshop. That way you CAN set your CMYK percentages - it will also help with getting the colors you want.

Also, Photoshop is a raster based program for designed for pictures. If you have Illustrator, that would be a better choice. However, if Photoshop is your only option, try to make sure your images are all at least 600 DPI at actual size.

[Betty]

I'm working in the cmyk file so that's okay... and I'm just going to order a proof. I'd rather have it right then guess and get it wrong.

Thanks!

[Betty]

Do you have any recommendations for a program that will help me calibrate my monitor?

[Kevy Baby]

About the only inexpensive one that I know of is the Pantone Huey (http://www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=79). But I don't know how effective it is. Most of my experience is in the higher end ones (several hundred dollars).