Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm not a graphics bod. So I have to admit that designers sometimes turn me comically bananas by sending me Photoshop files and then expecting me to remove template marks and shit. Video does not equal graphics work and although they might pretend to understand what I do, I don't pretend to understand what they do.

So amusingly I've been sent two pieces of artwork for a limited release commercial DVD that I've been producing. I highlighted some errors but the designer told me "Oh you'll have Photoshop so just feel free to alter it". Then he vanished into thin air.

So now I have two pieces of artwork. I have Paint Shop Pro and I thought to myself that it could presumably open Photoshop files.

Well yes indeed it can. But the problem is the lovely vibrant pictures suddenly look dull and lifeless. Preview on the Mac they look lovely, open in PSP under Parallels and they look like shit.

I'm assuming it is some obscure colour space issue that I don't fully understand. I can make the alterations in Paint Shop Pro, but it's no use if I wreck the artwork by turning it all dull and horrible (especially as these DVD's and covers are being properly glass mastered and litho printed).

Anyone have any ideas?

BTW I'm just downloading The Gimp for OSX to see if that does any better.

On closer inspection the PSD files are in CYMK, which Paintshop Pro claims to handle but when it opens them the colour gets ballsed up. The Gimp just helpfully tells me that it doesn't support CYMK.

I have emailed the designer again to kindly ask if he can fix the problems. Fingers crossed or I'm not sure what I'll do.

I have the latest copy of Photoshop - I could re-save the files as RGB, maybe?

Thanks for the offer. Problem is that they'll need to go the the printers as CMYK so I'm not convinced converting them to RGB and back is the right course. From my limited knowledge of printy magic that this is a bad thing as it can cause colour shifts.

I've emailed the designer, also pointing out another thing that needs fixing (he's used the same design for the on-body print of DVD 1 and DVD 2, so if you muddle your discs up you won't have a clue which is which.)

Just imagine if an architect went "Yeah mate, finished designing your house. Here's the files, just load it up in AutoCAD and make any alterations you want.'

I just want to get this lot off to the duplicators. At 2 months its not the longest job ever but it has been fiddly beyond belief.

At the moment sleep might make it all better. It's worth a shot as I'm knackered.

You're correct, that would be an ill-advised thing to do.

So the problem is you need to make alterations but in doing so you'll have to work in RGB (due to your image editing software) then re save into CMYK?

If so, DONT.

I can take a look for you but I'm away from Thursday onwards.

I'll see if the designer gets back to me. Failing that I'll Paypal one of you lot a few quid to sort it out. The fixes literally took me 10 minutes in Paint Shop Pro but as I say I mucked up all the colour.

It's fairly simple stuff (remove a logo that will cause us to get sued, fix two pieces of text and remove the template layer). However the files are quite large (80 meg zipped).

Lets see if the designer pulls his finger out first.

All done. Phew.

Thanks for clearing up the CYMK issue.

Just now preparing the masters ready to book my duplication in the morning. Annoyingly copy protecting this lot isn't within our budget and the cheaper methods are next to useless so if this all ends up on Bit Torrent I'll be furious.

Trouble with copy protection is that anyone can crack it in two minutes anyway. Not something I'd usually care about but when it's your first proper retail DVD you suddenly start worrying about all sorts of things.

May I ask what it's an DVD of?

It's a dance instruction DVD.

Can I ask when I'll be getting my consultancy fee?

Glad you're sorted btw Chinny.

Craster will be arriving shortly. I must warn you though, they do bite. But enjoy anyway.

Of course, you do realise that unless there's a super-special BETEO in-joke inserted as a hyper-secret easter egg into that DVD, we're all going to be bitterly disappointed in you, Chinners?

Printing image formats can be a colossal pain in the arse. The first time I was asked to chuck together a CD cover for a friend of a colleague at short notice (them needing someone at ultra-short, ultra-cheap notice, me pointing out that despite being interested in design, I was also an uber-novice at such conventions), I sent over a file in RGB format, with no bleed spacing, leading to a few sharp words from the (clearly unwilling to bother looking at things before having hundreds of copies ran off) printer. How we laughed. No, not 'laughed', that other one.

I did some brochures for myself the other week. The printers were a bloody pain in the arse frankly and the entire process was hateful.

I managed to set some important features on a print we did a while back to a non-K black, but left them in the 'blacks' layer (this was before we started sending PDFs with proper overprints set up, and instead sent raw illustrator files, for some reason).

Needless to say, when the printer overlayed the black ink, it missed off these features, and nobody picked them up in the proofs. Oops!

Several thousand pounds of a fuck-up, there.

Is MaliA the customer?

Is MaliA the star?