Using Aperture Books is a great way to format for printing cards. I have been using Red River card stock and their ICC profiles, but get a washed result printing from Aperture Books. I normally print from a project and am satisfied with the output. Red River suggested that I just use CS5 instead, but I would like to get this right in Aperture. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks -
Dudley,
Sounds like a color profile mismatch in the print dialog. Have you opened the expanded settings and made sure everything is as it should be? If you can get a clean print out of photoshop, perhaps compare the settings in CS5 to Aperture and look for a difference.
I’m assuming that you’re able to access the ICC profiles for your paper stock within Aperture, correct?
If you’re fighting differences like this, it’s a good idea to go step by step backwards to isolate the difference. If you output a file from Aperture (presumably a PDF if you’re making “books”), open that in Photoshop and it prints fine, import that PDF back into Aperture and print from there. Is it not right? Then there’s a disconnect in the print dialog. Is the reimported PDF printing OK, but the straight print from Aperture not printing OK? Then there’s something different in how it’s being printed from Aperture (the original, not outputted-reimported test PDF) vs how it’s being output from Aperture.
Again, it probably comes down to an ICC mismatch somewhere.
It is frustrating to hear a company like Red River just tell you to use Photoshop. It’s a response out of ignorance. I’m not saying it’s impossible that something is wrong in Aperture and that you really will have to resort to CS5, but to hear that this is their immediate suggestion is frustrating. I’d ask that once you resolve the issue, that you please go back to Red River and tell them what the solution was—so they can direct future customers to the same answer.
please keep us posted,
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph -
I think you are right that it is a color profile issue. I first used a template that RR Paper provided and printed successfully on their card stock with their ICC profiles using CS5. The color and quality was good. As you suggested, I output a PDF from Aperture Books and printed it in CS5, and the color output was as it should be. I then tried to import the PDF back into Aperture, and that also printed correctly. I am selecting the correct ICC profiles and using the same settings as when I print in Aperture from a project, but something in Aperture Books is affecting the color and requiring a workaround to be useable.
Dudley Warner
WARNER Photography
Dudley,
Very curious. Thanks for testing. It sounds like a bug; I’ll point this out to Apple.
cheers
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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