Rangefinder Book - All B&W shots are purple :(

[T_om]

My copy of the Rangefinder II book arrived today.

I hope I just got a bad copy and it can be returned for a good one, but in my copy of the book, all the B&W shots are purple with practically no dMAX.

It is like the files were never pre-press converted for CMYK printing.

Anyone else have this problem?

Tom

[back alley]

not sounding too good...

[vincentbenoit]

Originally Posted by T_om

My copy of the Rangefinder II book arrived today.

I hope I just got a bad copy and it can be returned for a good one, but in my copy of the book, all the B&W shots are purple with practically no dMAX.

It is like the files were never pre-press converted for CMYK printing.

Anyone else have this problem?

Tom

Are they purple under all types of light, or do they turn greenish depending on the lighting?

Vincent

[Todd.Hanz]

I don't think they print until ordered so maybe LuLu can do something about this quality control issue. How do the color/sepia toned images look?

Todd

[peter_n]

Not good Tom. Mine shipped today so now I wait with bated breath...

[T_om]

Originally Posted by vincentbenoit

Are they purple under all types of light, or do they turn greenish depending on the lighting?

Vincent

They are pretty much constantly purple under all lighting. I took it outside in bright daylight and also looked at it under incandescent and fluorescent. All look purple.

The color plates are tinged with purple too. Most noticeable in shot containing sky.

Tom

[JoeFriday]

sonofab****

I made sure all the files were RGB format as Lulu requires.. everything looked great before I uploaded, and there was no image conversion in the PDF process

!!!!!!

[Gabriel M.A.]

Originally Posted by T_om

They are pretty much constantly purple under all lighting. I took it outside in bright daylight and also looked at it under incandescent and fluorescent. All look purple.

The color plates are tinged with purple too. Most noticeable in shot containing sky.

I hope they don't ask me these sort of questions too, if my book looks like that. No matter what the lighting, B&W and color pictures shouldn't have a purple "tint" to it, unless that's purposefully intended. Did we intend to have the photos purple?

Not good

[JoeFriday]

no, the books weren't intended to have any tint to the photos.. I didn't do ANY color adjusting.. it was strictly slight sharpening, and converting from grayscale to RGB for applicable files

if the color images also have a blue tint, I think the problem is on Lulu's end.. which is a big inconvenience, but not the end of the world

[Gabriel M.A.]

(sorry Brett, the question was me being "confused out loud")

It sounds like a printing issue, Brett, at least with Tom's copy. I hope so. Is it?

[T_om]

It's not just blue Brett, it is a combination of blue and magenta. It looks JUST like files look when they are missed during pre-press for conversion to CMYK.

Am I the only one that has received the book yet?

Tom

Did Brett and rover get a galley proof (I think they call it that) beforehand?

How do the color pics look?

I'm really hoping you just got a lousy copy,,,,,

[JoeFriday]

yeah.. that's my thought, too.. their printing process is to take a full-RGB file and have the printer (a Xerox Docutech laser printer) do the RGB-to-CMYK conversion with the printer's hardware

sounds like they didn't calibrate the printer and the color shifted.. the problem now is that they probably printed a whole batch of books at once because everyone ordered within a day or two, initially.. so we might have a couple dozen books like that

[JoeFriday]

Originally Posted by T_om

It's not just blue Brett, it is a combination of blue and magenta. It looks JUST like files look when they are missed during pre-press for conversion to CMYK.

Am I the only one that has received the book yet?

Tom

Tom, do you think it was a wrong setting by the printing tech who chose the wrong file format.. CMYK instead of RGB?

I have a Xerox Docutech printer in my office that I use daily.. and I know if I set the wrong file format, the colors will definitely shift and look faded.. but if I choose "As Is" and let the printer handle it, they come out great

I really hope that's what happened here

[Andrew Touchon]

UPS is scheduled to deliver my copy tomorrow. I will let everyone know if it's screwed-up ASAP.

[FrankS]

Is there a quality guarantee?

[Trius]

Brett: Was it a Docutech or an iGen? Just curious.

Perhaps we all need to take a deep breath and see what we get over the next few days?

Meanwhile, Brett can let Lulu know that "there may be some "issues" - details to follow".

[JoeFriday]

here it is, directly off their site:

Should I use CMYK, RGB or Grayscale images?
Use RGB for both color and black & white books. We've had people report that when you save your image files for printing in a black & white book, saving in Grayscale causes them to pixellate upon printing. We therefore recommend setting the color mode of all graphics to RGB.


Why do I have to use RGB images?
In short, it's because our printer uses a CMYK printing process. Sound contradictory? Well, no... read on.

When you upload an image that has an RGB palette, the printer converts it to the appropriate CMYK color. If you upload an CMYK image however, it may use your CMYK palette map. The palette mapping of your monitor, however, does not match that of the digital production press that our printer uses. This causes the colors to be off, sometimes very wildly. To keep your colors as true as possible, always upload RGB images.

[FrankS]

No doubt it was their screw-up. You'd think they would look at what they've printed. We've got to let them know that there is an issue.

[rover]

Tom, do you have book 1 to compare the images from both?

[RayPA]

Originally Posted by JoeFriday

sonofab****

I made sure all the files were RGB format as Lulu requires.. everything looked great before I uploaded, and there was no image conversion in the PDF process

!!!!!!

IIRC, the black and white images in the first book had a slight magenta tint to them. Those were barely noticable, and as Vincent intimates, moreso under different/particular light sources.

[back alley]

if i recall correctly, there were a couple of comments about a pinkish tint from a few members re.the first book.

joe

Dealing with "issues" to raise with Lulu.

I never before had the first book as I wasn't in it.

But I ordered it with the second.

If the first was "OK" then Lulu should know that the second should have used the same printer settings as the first.

[Bertram2]

Originally Posted by JoeFriday

yeah.. that's my thought, too.. their printing process is to take a full-RGB file and have the printer (a Xerox Docutech laser printer) do the RGB-to-CMYK conversion with the printer's hardware

sounds like they didn't calibrate the printer and the color shifted.. the problem now is that they probably printed a whole batch of books at once because everyone ordered within a day or two, initially.. so we might have a couple dozen books like that

If so, what shall we do if our copy arrives withthe the same "toning " ? Can we send it back and ask for a correct print ? These guys should have anything like a quality control, shouldn't they ? I mean anybody who checks if the print looks like the image file ? My book is on the fly since last Friday.

Maybe you should contact them and stop the production prozess for a correction ?

Regards,
bertram