[scribus] Enhance PDF/CMYK export result

[Tino Schwarze]

Hi,

On Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 01:20:09PM +0200, mumrel wrote:

> first of all I want to thank you for the great work. I used scribus to
> create a wedding newspaper, 36 pages in total.
> All with free and open source software! I would not be able to create it in
> the same quality without the complete toolset (GIMP, Scribus!, Fedora).
> 
> So and here comes my question:
> I exported my newspaper to pdf with colors set to CMYK/printer. After
> looking at the results the colors seem to have gained brightness and lost
> saturation.
> In total they don't look as nice as in the (digital) original or if i set
> the colors to screen/monitor/RGB. Ok so far no problem, since i thought
> after printing it looks the same or at least similar as on screen.

You probably want to look a bit deeper into color management. It's
non-trivial to get right. Getting colors to look on screen as on paper
is very difficult and requires a lot of consideration (e.g. correct
monitor calibration and profile, correct printer profile etc.) 

Key issues:
- Enable color management in Scribus.
- Ask your printing company about the profile they use. They'll probably
  tell you "Euroskala" (which is Euroscale Coated) or "ISOCoated".
- Use that profile in Scribus, so it will convert RGB colors correctly.
- Remember that RGB contains colors which cannot be represented in CMYK
  and vice versa!

> Well, but it doesn't. I printed it at a german company and the printing
> result looks extremely similar to the exported CMYK-pdf and thus are a to
> bright and don't have enough saturation.
> 
> In images:
> http://mumpitz.bplaced.net/RGBpdf.png   (Setting: color: screen/monitor)
> http://mumpitz.bplaced.net/CMYKpdf.png (Setting: color: printer)
> http://mumpitz.bplaced.net/photographedprint.png photogrpahed print (!)

Which viewer did you use to get these pictures? What CMYK profile did
you use? What RGB profile?

HTH,

Tino.

-- 
"What we nourish flourishes." - "Was wir nähren erblüht."

www.craniosacralzentrum.de
www.forteego.de