Using ink jet print prints for commercial repro

[Pete JF]

A friend of mine did some promo pieces in the form of postcards. He had them printed through modern postcards.

The guy there said they have had good results when they scan an 8x10 or so inkjet print (glossy) and reduce to postcard size. My friend did this and the results were excellent, every bit as good as scanned film or digi files he had submitted in the past.

He does this regularily now and loves the fact that it takes the profiling etc. out of the process. They match his prints and he has been nothing but thrilled.

Anyone here with any experience doing this in a commercial setting...actual jobs?

I didn't know where to place this query so I plopped it down here.

Any feedback/ideas/notions/absolute bewilderment would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Rob C]

Hi Pete

I have a feeling that if your friend is using film, then he might get higher fidelity from supplying the original transparencies to the printer for them to scan etc. However, from digital capture, it's a whole different ballgame and all the usual problems raise their heads; but, if he has done a lot of afterwork on his pictures, then there is a certain logic to supplying a 'perfect' print which matches his conception of how it should look instead of a CD which brings in all the doubts about calibration, both his and the printer's.

Fun, ain't it?

Rob C

[Pete JF]

Thanks for the response Rob,


He is using film, color trans. But, after scanning, he does a fair amount of retouching, and styling...work, in PS. I guess it comes to this. comparing some of the earlier promos with the ones using a good print...you cannot tell the difference in terms of overall quality. They look great.

Im just wondering if the same could be done with larger repro (his cards are sort of jumbo postcard size) like in the 8.5x11 region.

I have, in the past, provided color prints for work headed for the press and got great results. This sseems to be the same sort of thing, and, much of my work is black and white and I always provid bw prints..why not this?  Im wondering if one of the big boys would jump and slam this concept, flat out....I want to know the dangers. Or, provide some encouragement towards actually making it work better.

Yes, it's fun...except when you can't get an straight answer, regarding profiles, from your client's printer and they say, "just send it over and we'll do the best we can with it" This happens all the time Im sorry to say, and these are reputable printers.


Larger agencies usually have a leg up on this in the form of a person who knows their shight, mid level to small graphic design firms, usually don't.

[Jonathan Wienke]

You will probably get even better results by supplying the printer a press-ready digital file and a reference print to eliminate any confusion regarding what the colors are supposed to look like. Just make sure the colors in the reference print fall within the gamut of the press.

It makes no sense to supply a "perfect" print, then pay someone to scan it and "fix" the scan to match the print when you can supply a digital file that doesn't need to have dust spots and other scanning artifacts removed, and will most likely require less color tweaking than the scan. A scan of a print is two analog generations removed from the original digital file, and that cannot possibly have a beneficial effect on final quality. Scanning a print is a kludge for the technologically impaired.

[Gabe]

You will probably get even better results by supplying the printer a press-ready digital file and a reference print to eliminate any confusion regarding what the colors are supposed to look like. Just make sure the colors in the reference print fall within the gamut of the press.

It makes no sense to supply a "perfect" print, then pay someone to scan it and "fix" the scan to match the print when you can supply a digital file that doesn't need to have dust spots and other scanning artifacts removed, and will most likely require less color tweaking than the scan. A scan of a print is two analog generations removed from the original digital file, and that cannot possibly have a beneficial effect on final quality. Scanning a print is a kludge for the technologically impaired.
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I'm with Johnathan on this one. A properly prepared souce file and a reference print is the way to go.