Printing files

[zippierr]

Hello! I am designing a high school magazine on Photoshop. I have never printed a magazine before and I am a beginner. So there is this thing : When I export the files as png or jpeg or jpg and look them through my phone they look different than they look on my pc, like the colors etc. I don't really care about this problem but I want to know when I get the magazine printed what would it look like? Would it look like it looked on my computer or my phone? 

[Lumigraphics]

You are running into an issue known as color management. To get mostly accurate colors, the entire chain of devices from computers to displays to printers to software must support color management. If you can get ahold of a hardware calibration device, you can calibrate your computer displays.

Is this magazine going to be printed or online? Is it a print-on-demand or do you have a commercial printer doing it? Does your faculty advisor have experience with color design and printing?

One note, Photoshop is NOT the right tool for designing a magazine. If you have access to Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress, these are pro-level page design apps that would be the right choice for creating a magazine.

[zippierr]

It's %100 going to get printed but if we could arrange somehow it's gonna be up on online too. It's a high school  magazine and as a student I design it but the magazine is sponsored by a graphic design agency so when I finish the whole magazine I will get them checked by the agency to see if they are avaible to get printed properly. It's going to get printed by a commercial printer.

I know Photoshop is not the right tool and I also have InDesign. I was actually going to design it on InDesign but previous year's magazine was designed on Photoshop by another student and I got last year's magazine's psd files and I use them as kind of a template. Last year the designer student created the designs on Ps but then he and again, a graphic agency employee put the files on InDesign and made the arrangements to get it printed, I guess. 

Thank you for the answer and I hope I have explained myself right because English is not my native language.

[Lumigraphics]

Before you go any further, see if someone from the agency can help get you on the right track. Fixing your design after its been done all wrong is not the best use of time and it will only teach you bad habits.

You can place the old Photoshop files into InDesign and use them as templates for this years design.

[zippierr]

I think it's a reasonable thing to do what you're saying because I know that last year's magazine had some issues when it got printed like the colors on a page didn’t look as they look on the files, a shade of grey looked too dark you can't see the texts etc. I will get my desings checked by someone from the agency asap, before creating some more. Thank you for taking your time :)! 

[mglush]

Hi,

Lumigraphics suggestions are really good and I highly recommend that you follow them. Two things to think about: Never use png or jpg files for print. If you do decide to use InDesign (which I highly recommend) you can import your native .psd files directly into the program--and they work great. Jpg is a compressed web format and is not good to use for print. Png files ususally don't have the resolution for print, because it also is a web format.

And speaking of resolution, make sure all of your Photoshop files are 300 ppi. This will save you from the headache of fuzzy looking print images that look like garbage. Psd files, at 300 ppi, will give you good print files to turn into your printer. 

Another good thing about InDesign, is it is made for doing large amounts of type, where photoshop is not. If you bring last year's design into InDesign, you can recreate the type size and style in InDesign and it will look sharper and cleaner than Photoshop. InDesign is also has better use of type features like tracking, kerning and paragraph control. It also has Paragraph and Character Styles that will save you a lot of time in working with magazines. Definitely look into these things, because they will save you time and create a more cohesive design.

I use Photoshop and InDesign for just about everything--including 4 quarterly magazines and 3 quarterly booklets. Let us know if you have any other questions,

Michelle

[zippierr]

After listening to your advices I will work InDesign from now on, although I know Photoshop better. I don't want to waste more time working on Photoshop if InDesign is more handful. Thanks a lot, have a great day! 

[NB, colourmanagement]

Just to add a point, you may have been asked to send an RGB file to print, that’s OK.

If you're sending CMYK files, then you must know what CMYK ICC profile to use, the ICC profile sets the ink mixes.

Print processes differ in the ink mixes needed - based on method (could be sheet fed / web / flexo) and on media, is it coated uncoated etc. If you convert your images etc to CMYK without knowing the right CMYK ICC profile it's kinda like trying to hit a dartboard in the dark. It's really unlikely you'll even get close. 

If your computer screen is correctly calibrated then you should see a pretty good match to the same image on a phone,

try this test

please go here and download the Adobe RGB testimage:

https://www.colourmanagement.net/index.php/downloads_listing/

Open in Photoshop -

Now on the phone - in a browser open this link: 

https://tinyurl.com/mobiletestimage-jpg

I have a calibrated Eizo Coloredge Graphics display and when I do that using my iPhone X I get a great match

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management