Hi

Thanks for your responses.

Paul - unfortunately converting everything to a set CMYK is not an option, we only have control over the editorial content, not the advertising. We don't touch it at all. Evrything that we actually process gets converted to a CMYK profile apprpriate to our conditions (Australian, mainly web fed).

Chris - You're right, I probably am overstating the problem. I know from experience that in the shadow areas a non 'perfect' gray balance will not really matter, especially with GCR. However, try to convince scanner operators who are set in their ways that it doesn't matter that the figures aren't what they expect, it's right for the process. They are starting to understand that figures don't matter so much anymore, but it's a (very) slow process. My main concern is when profiles are built with UCR rather than GCR (which is quite common in Australia, GCR is usually more common in newsprint), especially with all those horrible stainless steel appliances that are so fashionable at the moment. Here gray balance traditionally has dictated that the yellow should always be slightly above the magenta, whereas most profiles tend to have it lower (SWOP, ISO etc). This is where most of the head butting with scanning comes in...

However, you have confirmed my fear, that at press time there will have to be compromise when files come from different areas. Unfortunately at this stage we don't live in a perfect worldand for now we'll have to live with it.

Thanks, Bee

Belinda Beckinsale

Sinnott Bros Pty Ltd
Unit 4/85-91 O'Riordan St, Alexandria 2015
Ph: (02) 9353 9527, Fx: (02) 9313 4597