Q: How do I find TAC % / How do I fix it?

[aprilk31527202]

Hello Community Support,

I am working with a printer (client's preference) that I expect is behaving somewhat unprofessionally. They are unable to supply me with an ICC profile, and rather suggest that I should remove all ICC profiles from the document. Does anyone know if this works, or if it is a bad idea? I am afraid of color shifting...

The profile that I have been using is the standard web coated for CYMK one..  Which they claim is "ok". With this profile, my colors look good / consistent, but I am concerned that the ink might be going on too thickly. I have gotten this feedback from the printer: "CMYK values should not be over 240% TAC, otherwise, this would result in over saturation or high ink density issues."

I wouldn't be surprised if that is affecting my print, so I want to check the value and if necessary "fix it". Can anyone explain to me where I can check this - in Illustrator, Photoshop and or Adobe Acrobat? And where I can see if there is a color-profile embedded in the PDF in general? I guess I can also use Bridge to see this, but I'd prefer to look it up in the document info or something...

And if TAC is too high, what do I do? Do I remove the profile like the printer suggests?

Thank you very much!

Sincerely,

April

[Nesa Nurani]

See if this can help:

https://creativepro.com/force-color-images-cmyk-240-ink-limit/ 

[aprilk31527202]

Thank you Nesa!

This article seems clear and informative.

I see that if I need to fix this by using a custom ICC profile that the printer's suggestion of having "no ICC profile" is super questionable.

In most cases, I would expect the printer to adjust for this with their own custom ICC profile, is this safe to assume?

I will try this out!

[aprilk31527202]

First challenge: I am not seeing that same "ink limit" setting in Illustrator...

[Nesa Nurani]

I'm not actualy familiar with this but here is another article from same site about ink density in illustrator, hope this helps:

https://creativepro.com/how-to-reduce-ink-density-in-illustrator-files/ 

[aprilk31527202]

So I tested this theory out in InDesign... and I cannot say that I am happy with this. I have areas that have more than the 240% requirement; that much seems clear. But when I use the test profile provided in that article, it makes my files darker (that seems counterintuitive...) and when I go to check the separations window, the problem still remains. Therefore, I am unsure of how to remedy the issue.