printing quality at kinkos

[mastercave]

ok so i went to pick up my vinyl overlay today and the blue on it is very dull and dead looking. on my monitor it was very bright, purest blue (0,0,255). i gave them the file as a EPS. should i have gone with another format like PDF or AI?

[SNAAAKE]

ok so i went to pick up my vinyl overlay today and the blue on it is very dull and dead looking. on my monitor it was very bright, purest blue (0,0,255). i gave them the file as a EPS. should i have gone with another format like PDF or AI?

LOL...IIIIII KNEW IT !
sorry..dont wanna laugh but when I print something from kinkos..I jack up the color *all* the way !
so prints come out pretty good..
only problem is they do it wrong size everytime !  
on purpose or something.
but my last overlay on vinyl was perfect size but marque was still short by an inch.
you should always bring photoshop format.  

[Frostillicus]

ok so i went to pick up my vinyl overlay today and the blue on it is very dull and dead looking. on my monitor it was very bright, purest blue (0,0,255). i gave them the file as a EPS. should i have gone with another format like PDF or AI?

That sounded like the highest blue you could have given them.  It's kinkos - that happened to me recently with my marquee.  Not much you can do - it's a limitation of their printing apparently.  Perhaps it differs by location.  It's never going to look as great as the screen, but they in particular seem print stuff really washed out.

[mastercave]

yep, they did mess up on the size. just checked at first and it's off by half and inch. so i had to go back and wait another day for it...

[3dmacman]

ok so i went to pick up my vinyl overlay today and the blue on it is very dull and dead looking. on my monitor it was very bright, purest blue (0,0,255). i gave them the file as a EPS. should i have gone with another format like PDF or AI?

I don't know what program your using but if you want a close to accurate reproduction of colors always work in cmyk. By the way color various per pc, mac , etc especially monitor colors.

[Frostillicus]

I don't know what program your using but if you want a close to accurate reproduction of colors always work in cmyk. By the way color various per pc, mac , etc especially monitor colors.

That would be true for a regular 4-color printer, but sometimes printing houses use 6 or 7 color large format printers.  In which case you should always give them RGB and let their own machine convert it to CMYK, thereby giving a much higher range of colors than if you just gave them a CMYK file.

Although, unless you ask, you never know what kind of printer they will use.  Heh, even the Kinko's worker bees don't usually know.  

[Brax]

Worker Bee's?

From what I've heard they're Worker Sloths.  

[3dmacman]

I don't know what program your using but if you want a close to accurate reproduction of colors always work in cmyk. By the way color various per pc, mac , etc especially monitor colors.

That would be true for a regular 4-color printer, but sometimes printing houses use 6 or 7 color large format printers.  In which case you should always give them RGB and let their own machine convert it to CMYK, thereby giving a much higher range of colors than if you just gave them a CMYK file.

Although, unless you ask, you never know what kind of printer they will use.  Heh, even the Kinko's worker bees don't usually know.  

Ok, how can there be a greater range of colors with RGB files  instead of CMYK  considering there is no true black with RGB.
And far as letting there machines convert your files to their format be it cmyk or rgb, then saturation and correct color is kind of hit or miss. Also 6-7 color printers use special inks like spot colors or chroma color inks.  Being a graphic designer I have to deal with color correction and print issues all the time. Not to dog anyone here just giving my two cents.

[Frostillicus]

I don't know what program your using but if you want a close to accurate reproduction of colors always work in cmyk. By the way color various per pc, mac , etc especially monitor colors.

That would be true for a regular 4-color printer, but sometimes printing houses use 6 or 7 color large format printers.  In which case you should always give them RGB and let their own machine convert it to CMYK, thereby giving a much higher range of colors than if you just gave them a CMYK file.

Ok, how can there be a greater range of colors with RGB files  instead of CMYK  considering there is no true black with RGB.
And far as letting there machines convert your files to their format be it cmyk or rgb, then saturation and correct color is kind of hit or miss. Also 6-7 color printers use special inks like spot colors or chroma color inks.  Being a graphic designer I have to deal with color correction and print issues all the time. Not to dog anyone here just giving my two cents.

You're not the only designer on these boards   - maybe this will clarify.  I found this little snippet off the web, some printing company who wrote up a really basic FAQ for customers:

[begin]
The real difference between RGB and CMYK.

ADDITIVE PRIMARY COLORS The red, green, and blue (RGB) components of light are called additive primaries. The display of all monitors is RGB. The additive colors are transmitted from light sources through the monitor.
SUBTRACTIVE PRIMARY COLOR A color system in which pigments, cyan, magenta and yellow of printing inks, are mixed to form other colors. Subtractive colors are created by light being reflected rather than emitted. Because of the difference between the way additive and subtractive colors are seen, color variations will be experienced when viewing colors from different light sources.
RBG COLORS vs CMYK COLORS All computer monitors create color via RGB components. The RGB mode has many millions MORE colors than the CMYK spectrum. Too bad we can't print RGB!!"
[end]

Obviously you have more colors available when you use RGB.  Some printers can reproduce a larger number of colors than others.  A crappy little inkjet will have a limited gamut and our 500,000 xerox 4-color printer has a much larger range (redder reds, nice deep blues, bright greens, etcs).  It's higher because we use better inks, as do some professional shops.   If we were to send stuff as CMYK (from photoshop lets say), we would not be reaching the potential of the machine.

Maybe we are on 2 different pages here - and maybe this discussion could benefit some non-designers.  

[3dmacman]

Maybe we are on 2 different pages here - and maybe this discussion could benefit some non-designers.  

 I think we are on 2 different pages, I mainly work in cmyk so I know that when my images hit the pages that are color or black and white they seperate properly. I also had to do cup graphics. Trapping that stuff was a pain!  I think if your images have a lot of dark colors in them then go with cmyk. That way there is a black channel to mix the colors from.  Not to through a pee pee fit just my $.02.  By the way I do have an arcade cab I'm mameing so I'm not some weird-do who likes to go to various boards and be a pain. If I can get my cheap digital camera working I'll post some pics. At work right now. Will post my marquee idea later. Damn, sorry for the long response. I tend to ramble.

[Dr. J]

Kinkos tells me they print in CMYK.  If you're printing there maybe it's best to bring them a cmyk in the first place.  
BTW, I brought a RGB to kinkos last night before reading this thread.  I'll let you know how it turned out.
 
edit:  Well, it wasn't ready yesterday, but it should be today.  

edit:  I printed on paper to avoid the washout that vinyl has.  Some of the blues turned into purples, but I'm still happy with it.  My color scheme was blue, purple and black to begin with, so it didn't hurt anything.  I'll post pics when I can.

[tritonarcade]

Actually all printers are CMYK printers.  Even if you print an RGB file to a printer connected directly to your computer the file is getting translated to CMYK for the print.  You're much better off bringing a CMYK file to Kinko's because you will be able to see exactly how it will look on your screen (well, not exactly - but closer than an RGB preview) rather than being at the mercy of the translation.  You can tweak the blues to some extent in CMYK mode to give a decently vibrant feel to an illustration.

For large scale prints, companies will use CMYK offset printing with one or two spot colors - i.e. a very vibrant blue - where necessary.  Obviously this requires the creation of plates and will run a base fee in the hundreds of dollars.  For something as large as side art you're talking at least a thousand dollars.

This is why I'm thinking of going with a NOS side art or no side art at all for my cab.  I just can't have that cheesy/drab CMYK print ruining the cabinet's look.  For the marquee and control panel, OTOH, I don't mind because the lexan overlay tends to hide the issue rather well.

[AlanS17]

I'm pretty sure it's all a matter of calibration.

I was kinda scared how my print job was gonna turn out when I took it to this local copy shop. The guy in the print department only had one good eye! It turned out fine, though. Was alot cheaper than Kinko's too.

[TalkingOctopus]

Make sure to bring a tape measure when you go to pick up your cpo from kinkos.  They almost always are short by 1/2".  Measure it on site and make them redo it.  They were really grumpy about redoing it, but the second time it came out right.

The moral of the story: Make sure to measure your print right away.  If it is from kinkos it is probably the wrong size.

[Smittydc]

I always design my kinko's prints with a bleeded border bigger than I want -- It's easier to trim it myself than argue with them that they printed it 1/8" too small.