Here's a new one...

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Customer supplied native CS4 InDesign file. Pretty standard issue mess. Way too many colors, every file format known to man... just a mess. I get it all sorted out and send it on it's way. A couple days later I get it back for color correction. What I find is truly one of THE laziest things I have seen a desinger do. This particular instance reminds me of using white boxes to mask art in PageMaker.

Check this out... I go to the first image and click on it to edit it. "What? the image is not being selected?" Oh,  and this is good.... a transparent box of 20% yellow over the image. This desinger placed percentages of the different process colors OVER the images rather than color correct them in Photoshop. For example, one image had a process mix of 50% of C, M, and Y, placed OVER the image and set to 30% opacity. Most of these "color corrections" did not adhere to the shape of the image underneath and extended well into the already transparency laden BG.

So, I call the desinger and start my line of questioning...

DCS: "I noticed you want me to color correct your images, but I find all of the images have process color transparent boxes over them. Was there a particular reason you did this?"

Customer: "You mean you don't know how to color correct in InDesign?"

DCS: "Evidently not."

Customer: "Yeah, I learned this trick from the Art Director here, he does it all the time. Works pretty well, huh?"

DCS: "No, not really. Did your Art Director also approve all these overlaps where the transparency continues on into the background?"

Customer: "Yes, he said it won't show on press."

DCS: "Not only will it show, it needs to be fixed. Furthermore, every image has a 90% 2 point stroke that is also effecting the colors. They need to be tints so they don't overprint. Really, this file needs to really be torn apart and readjusted."

The customer, after some further discussion agreed to fix all the problems. Today, I get back her fixes. The borders were now 100% cyan, but none of the adjustments were made. Furthermore, she didn't do any of the 100 corrections she had marked in the book. 10 of them were type changes... the rest? You guessed it, adjustments.


 

[Joe]

Just goes to show that indeed the world is creating better idiots.

That is creative though, right? :laugh:

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

No. I found it to be an irritant. Creative would be doing your job as a DESIGNER, not a desinger. Creative these days would be me opening a job and hitting print and nothing else.

[Joe]

They're just thinking outside the box.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

They need to be in a box.

[gnubler]

Customer: "You mean you don't know how to color correct in InDesign?"

DCS: "Evidently not."

Love it.

[gnubler]

They need to be in a box.

Like a Boxing Helena type of box. No limbs.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

They need to be in a box.

Like a Boxing Helena type of box. No limbs.

At first. I don't know how long I could keep them alive, even hanging them upside down. Eventually, the skin HAS to come off.

[youston]

People have been color-correcting this way in PAP for years. Your client is obviously a former PAP user who's forced to use InDesign because her boss won't spring for PAP. Damned shame, if you ask me.

Step it up, DCS. Join the idiocracy.

[gnubler]

What *technique* would they try if they wanted to pull color down? Make a swatch called "-20% cyan" and apply it to a box with 0% opacity thinking the "printer" would comprehend the swatch name and adjust the color accordingly? lololololol

Art school grad?

[Syphon]

WOW! This beats every horror story I have, but I am not surprised about anything these days. My expectations of files from our clients is very low.

[frailer]

They saw the term "Overlay" during a fleeting visit to PhSh. Decided to use it...   :evil:

[gnubler]

I unfortunately came across a designer's blog earlier today while doing some research, going on and on about his obsession with Photoshop and how lately his work has required him to step into the foreign interfaces of Illustrator and <gasp> InDesign. I just chuckled, because he's probably the one sending us fubared projects layed out completely in Photoshop.

I'm not a genius, but when I first decided I wanted to get into the design/prepress side of printing I taught myself the major apps in this order: Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator. (this was before Indy was mainstream). And during the Quark tutes I made sure I understood font management, color, bleed, trap, scaling images, and everything else related. It's like all these fools with torrented copies of PS just paint pretty pictures and call it a day.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

I think it's a matter of pride. These "artists" build these cornucopias of multicolored vomit in pixels, want it printed and find out that "expert level" Photoshop class they took from the guy that did all the clipping paths on off brand toys, was a charlatan and they will never see their ten grand or be able to do anything about it. On top of that, the superior cloud from which they reign supreme on all high, gets hit by a Prepress guy doing some off hour bat archery and they have to explain why they weren't omniscient enough to have automatic resolution understanding. Like I said, pride issue.

[Joe]

Overthinking it.

They are just dumbasses that don't care and expect the lowly prepresser to fix it all. And if you don't they want your head on a platter and a free re-print.