Printing noise

[jennverrier]

hi all,

another question here. My booklets were printed with a whole ton of noise in them. This is not in my photos nor is it on my home inkjet prints, or on other proofs I received. But with 2 different printers it appeared on them. One printer said the dpi they printed with at 600 could have actually been too high. Is that a possibility. ?

see attached photo

[TheDigitalDog]

Could be the halftone dot; what linescreen was used?

[jennverrier]

not sure what that is, something only the printer would know?

[TheDigitalDog]

Yes, ask what Linescreen was used. Lower value, more course and halftone dot more visible. A good inkjet is virtually "invisible".

[jennverrier]

Thanks I'll check with them but I thought most commercial printers were toner based. Not sure makes a difference but will check with them on Monday regardless. This is why I'm looking into a printer who prints with the indigo as recomended to me (from what I understand it's as close as one can get to offset printing, but still digital printing and uses ink vs toner).

[TheDigitalDog]

Indigo is a toner based digital press using a linescreen as high as 180lpi but still a far cry from a good inkjet.

You can't soft proof with out a ICC profile of the actual press condition!

Make sure the preview check box is on.

[jennverrier]

got it, okay the soft proofing seems to be working now, I downloaded a profile from modern postcard and from blurb just to see what they would do.

[TheDigitalDog]

jenniferv34443390  wrote

got it, okay the soft proofing seems to be working now, I downloaded a profile from modern postcard and from blurb just to see what they would do.

The profile from Blurb is next to useless! It doesn’t define all (actually any) of their output conditions.

[jennverrier]

Ugh then why even have a link to it? So there is a chance, that even if I find a printer who will send me an icc profile for soft proofing, it could be useless too? Why is finding a good printer who gives a sh!t so hard?

[TheDigitalDog]

jenniferv34443390  wrote

Ugh then why even have a link to it?

Marketing.

[jennverrier]

Digitaldog, thanks for all your replies.  Do you happen to work for a printer, or know of a printer that works with photographers? Or could I possibly even send you my file to look at to see what I might be doing wrong. i am going to call a couple places tomorrow too. Have you by chance heard of Alphagraphics or knowmanything about them they seem to have a ton of locations..

[jennverrier]

Digitaldog- if I printed out my photos at home after editing them to look good from MY printer, and took them to a commercial printer and said make them look like this, would that work? A the end of the day I just want white to look white ☹️

[TheDigitalDog]

  wrote

Digitaldog- if I printed out my photos at home after editing them to look good from MY printer, and took them to a commercial printer and said make them look like this, would that work? A the end of the day I just want white to look white ☹️

No!

[jennverrier]

here is another somewhat unrelated question, but when I am trying to softproof a profile in photoshop, I go select the profile and then view proof, but nothing changes (form sample, even srgb to cmyk) . What am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to simulate paper color or not?

[jdanek]

I do not think the "noise" has anything to do with the image profile(s).  If you did not see the "noise" in your proofs, it could be the paper.  Can you tell us what type of paper was used on press?  And, what type of press?  Did they print stochastic? If the images were 600ppi, it will not affect "noise", would not be a factor.  Can you post an image here?  So we can see the image?  Just save a copy @ 72ppi and / or reduce the size.  Then, we can load it into Photoshop and have a closer look at the channels.