: How do I ensure that an image with a heavy color overlay will be visible in professional print? I have attached a detail of an image I created for a client. When printed on an inkjet you

@Nimeshi706

In commercial printing, the important factor is Ink Limits. In many cases, no part of a print piece can surpass 300% ink limits. What that means is you add up the % of each ink to determine the total coverage.

This is just a sample to show the theory since what you posted is an RGB image and all I can do is convert it to CMYK here (Based on my color settings)... but if you look at the Info Panel in Photoshop you can hover your cursor over areas to see the percentages:



So for the dark area the cursor is over, 245%. I'd move my cursor around a bit more to the darker areas to verify the percentages are all relatively close.

If you aren't pushing 300% then you won't have an issue.

Also be aware that Color Settings within Photoshop look out for this for you. If your Color Settings for CMYK images is set to "US Web Coated (SWOP)" then Photoshop itself won't allow color builds to go beyond 300% by default.

In most cases a heavily saturated CMYK image is not an issue as long as you are within ink limits. Sometimes it can take a better quality print provider if you are doing things like this across entire pages. It takes some pressman skill to maintain high coverage across a page. For spot photos here or there, there shouldn't really be an issue.

If you are overly concerned about color matching, a ChromaKey or color proof is imperative (not a PDF proof).

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@Harper654

Most commercial printers will provide a color proof that is ostensibly a very good representation of the final output. Probably will have an additional cost attached to it, but definitely ask about it. If they decline to offer a proof before final printing, you may want to look around elsewhere for another printer.

Also, make sure your image is in CMYK format, not RGB. Not doing so can severely affect the color output.

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