RGB Vector Art from Customers - ARRGGH!!

[bob]

For bitmaps I always send RGB files. Setting your Rendering Intents for bitmaps to 'Perceptual" and printing RGB bitmaps is about the closest to WYSIWYG that you'll ever achieve. On the other hand, vector components do better as CMYK especially if your Rendering Intents for everything but bitmaps are set to 'No Color Correction' or, failing that, 'Saturation'. Anecdote alert: Some years ago I sent an RGB file to a company to produce a large trade show background piece. They dutifully converted it to CMYK and returned the result. It was awful. I called them and they said that they had to convert the RGB info to CMYK since that was what they were printing. I told them to humor me, send the RGB file to their RIP. I told them I would accept the result regardless. They did so. The result was perfect.

A decent RIP will ultimately convert things to CMYK far better than any other software you have.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

You all are missing the Key component about what he is complaining about. You all zero'd in on sending RGB files to print... That is totally fine and welcomed (we do it all the time if color accuracy is not required and vibrancy is), but the fact that the clients file is multiple layers of RGB transparencies is where the issue happens.

I challenge anyone to build their files in any of their design programs by making a base image then add layers of transparency effects over the top and send that file to your choice of RIP... Your results may become erratic or you may end up with rectangle outlines of color shifts or complete solid white blocks.

This is the Inherent problem with RGB, transparencies, and the conversion to the output medium and profile.

The easiest answer is to rasterize the image at the highest resolution possible for the output, but that eliminates the smoothness of the vector lines, or to step through the file flattening the transparencies from the bottom up.