Print Quality for Newspaper

[HeatherTeller]

Newspaper - We are having some troubles when trying to print for newspaper purposes. I create the pages in Affinity Publisher and then

export (press ready) CMYK for color space. Then when the pdf pages are sent to printer, the colors and b/w text are messed up. Does anyone else use affinity then pdf and send to printer for newspaper quality and have suggestions on setting up to send?

[Lee_T]

Hi HeatherTeller,

Welcome to the forums, 

In you export settings, ensure these particular settings are set as shown below.

Lee

[HeatherTeller]

Thank you so much will give it a whirl!

[HeatherTeller]

Still waiting to hear back from printer, they are checking into it.

[RM f/g]

These are my settings for newspaper. Document profile is iso newspaper 26v4.

Hope it helps.

[AchillesV]

On 6/16/2022 at 12:40 PM, RM f/g said:

These are my settings for newspaper. Document profile is iso newspaper 26v4.

Hope it helps.

Does anyone have the Affinity Publisher v2 settings suitable for printing a newspaper? I do not have 'iso newspaper 26v4' profile that RM f/g has (he's using v1).

My printer is saying that my black isn't real black. To quote her:

"The problem is that your black on the color page is rich black and we need 100% black. Rich black is there is color laid under the black and the result is poor printing."

I'm using CMYK, and have been using the default black swatch for all my text, and exporting to PDF (print ready). I was using the "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2" profile. That's clearly wrong, but what should I choose? And what else do I need to change to make this right?

My available choices for ICC Profile are shown below:

[Dazmondo77]

I'd ask your printer to send you the profile they use and load into your systems profile folder which should then be available to Affinity.

Affinity's way of working with colour profiles is not great, unlike most other graphic design apps, you can't just set it and forget it - any colour profile changes either in app or export to PDF will mess your colours up and wreck your blacks - my approach is to start all jobs destined for print with a palette of global colours which I have set up as the default palette for CMYK jobs then set up your relevant text styles to use the single pass black set up in the global palette, which just saves a ton of grief at the export stage - say you've taken this approach using a global black, and you're Affinity job is set up  ISO Coated v2 300% but your print service provider sends you their press profile to use at the export to PDF stage, this will convert all your single pass blacks to rich blacks - my way around this is to convert the documents profile to the required profile, which if viewed in the info panel in photo persona, will show the conversion from single to rich blacks, but all you have to do to get the blacks back to single pass is to double click on the global black which should still show just 100% black in the CMYK sliders, then click on the percentage of the black, you don't even have to move it, just click which will change all your blacks back to single pass, document wide, then one way I would check for rogue rich blacks would be to double click on the global black and convert it to maybe green, then go through your whole document to check that everything that should be single pass black is green, if ok change the global back to just 100% black the export to PDF/X and you should get no come back from the printers.

This approach has saved me tons of grief over the years and is now second nature. 

Heres a screen grab to illustrate:

 

 

Also process globals which can be saved as the default swatches palette via the burger menu Process globals.afpalette

Hope this helps

[Hangman]

@AchillesV, you can download the profile here...

https://www.newsukadops.com/install-colour-profiles

[AchillesV]

Thank you Dazmondo77 and Hangman!

I created my document using the profile "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2" because that was the default. That was a mistake because now I'm concerned that some artifacts will be left over even if I change the color profile.

I used CMYK/8 and the default black swatch (I did not redefine it). But what is 100% black? Is it C==0, M==0,Y==0,k==100? Because when I select the black swatch and look at it, it looks black on my screen, but when I look at the CMYK slides, there are values for all of the colors. But when I set it to 0,0,0,100, then it does not look black on my screen. So I have not changed the black (yet). What should I change the CMYK sliders to for 100% black? I ask this so I can use Dazmondo77's approach.

Should I re-create my document from the beginning using the newspaper ICC file Hangman linked, and then use the same ICC profile when exporting to PDF? Or can I get by  just using the ICC profile on export?

Thanks again,

Robert

[AchillesV]

Hi Anto,

Thank you for your reply.

w/r/t to #2, should I set the default black swatch to 0,0,0,100?

Also, I don't understand #4. This is a problem because we do have black and white and color photos in the paper. Can you possibly elaborate on #4?

Thanks again,

Robert

 

[Hangman]

44 minutes ago, AchillesV said:

Should I re-create my document from the beginning using the newspaper ICC file Hangman linked, and then use the same ICC profile when exporting to PDF? Or can I get by  just using the ICC profile on export?

My (Personal) Advice

• Always, always, always liaise with the printing company, no two printing companies will give you the exact same advice or use the exact same specs...
• Ask questions and don't worry about sounding as though you have no idea what you're talking about, a decent printing company should advise you to ultimately make their life easier...
• Make sure you speak to the right person at the printing company, if you're speaking to a sales rep, then you're speaking to the wrong person.
• As @Dazmondo77 mentioned earlier, ask if the printing company have their own specific profile and if they do, ask them to send it to you. Theirs may be a variation on the standard profile I linked to earlier which they've tweaked for their press, so definitely use their profile over and above anything else.
• Ask them exactly how you should specify CMYK Black for their requirements when using their specific profile.

Read the following articles, they are quite informative and helpful in regards to creating artwork for Newspaper printing...

https://www.damiensymonds.net/art_newsprint.html

https://www.caseyprinting.com/blog/5-tips-for-designing-on-newsprint

[AchillesV]

Hi Hangman,

I am working with the printer but they take a long time to review what I've uploaded. I have also asked them for their ICC profile and I'm waiting for it. In the meantime, I'm going to try to use the ICC profile that you pointed me to. And I'm going to try to reset the black swatch to 100% black, but so far no one has told me what that is. I think it's 0,0,0,100, but not sure Can you tell me if that's correct? And once I load the ICC profile in my doc, should I choose "convert" or "assign"?

Also, I think you forgot to post the list of articles. I am keen to read through them (while I wait for the printer to get back to me).

Thank you,

Robert

Edited February 9, 2023 by AchillesV