image preview looks way too purple, but printed cover is correct, why? [ Edited ]

[GeorgeMcKim]

Preview image looks very bad, too dark and way too purple and not that great of resolution, but on the printed cover the coloris correct, why? I see other preview images that look great. What can I do to get a good preview image?

I made the cover file from an RGB .jpg image that was given to me, I imported it into an illustrator file on a MAC, exported from illustrator as a .tiff file (bytes for IBM computers) in CMYK color, opened the .tif file in photoshop on a mac, exported the file as a jpg at 300 dpi.

Should I convert the .jpg to .pdf, maybe?

Also I used the single file cover creator in LuLu.

Thanks, in advance,

George McKim

[Maggie]

Hmm...the resolution for previews is bad for everyone. Perhaps you can upload portions of  your PDF to another location, using issuu.com to make the flipping preview, and then provide the link to potential customers.

There you determine the preview resolution and size you want to use.

You can see flipping book previews on my website (using issuu). Not exactly what you were looking for, but maybe a workaround.

[Belinda D'Alessandro]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Maggie, the cover when viewed in online preview always tends to look "bad" for everyone (and not just here at Lulu) when it's compared to the printed cover if you've got the printed cover to look exactly the way you want it - it's the way computers display a low resolution (72dpi) RGB rendition of a "reasonable" resolution (300dpi) CMYK Print-ready cover.

If you get the cover to "look right" for web viewing, then it's not necessarily going to turn out right for print (unless you've got basic colours). It's better to get it to "look right" for print than it is to get it to "look right" for web viewing - I find it better to get the print ready colours right rather than the colour right for web viewing.

[GeorgeMcKim]

Belinda (et al.),

  I agree that that the printed image is the important thing (and my covers have been printed very accurately, I have no complaints there) , but I would think that Lulu (being the web giant that it is) could mange to fix this little problem, I mean they managed to come up with a program to automatically format an entire book!

  I guess the thing I don't understand is that some cover previews look very accurate as far as color and resolution are concerned, or they appear that way to me. If some covers are accurate, why can't they all be? Is there some secret formula?

  Customers deserve a preview image that is an accurate representation of the cover, in my humble opinion.

  I know that a small low resolution file will not be as good as a high res. image, but this goes beyond that. Here is a screen shot of the cover preview in Lulu, as you can see, it's too dark and the color is messed up compared to a similar sized image from my Poetry Journal website 

Here is the screenshot, a small image from my website, this is how the picture should look:

Here is the other preview cover image from Lulu:

Here is the screenshot, a small image from my website, this is how the picture should look:

As you can see (I hope) this is worse than just a little loss of resolution.

Lulu, you're better than this. Come on Lulu, throw a dog a bone here! 

Thanks,

George

[Cary_Penrose]

George,
Our previews are generated by converting your original cover images to Flash images. This conversion process can cause color shifts (especially if we have to convert the color space). The best way to get the most accurate color representation in the preview is to make sure your original cover images are in sRGB. Obviously changing the color space of your cover will affect the look of the printed copy so make sure to order yourself a proof of the book just to make sure it is to your liking.

[GeorgeMcKim]

Thanks for the info Cary. I converted my cover jpeg file from CMYK to sRGB color space and uploaded it and yes indeed it is an accurate representation of the cover. I guess I'll try ordering a book using sRGB color and see how that looks. Is it possible to get an accurate printed cover using sRGB colorspace, or is sRGB mainly for computer monitor viewing?

Thanks again,

George

[Cary_Penrose]

George,
That depends on many factors. The only real way (unfortunately) to know how it will print is to have one printed. It is definitely possible to get an accurate book printed from sRGB, but color is one of the trickiest things in printing so it's always a good idea to print a proof.

[crooked6p]

Ditto with Cary.  Not only is printing color tricky ... every printer is different.  The best result will always be to send as PDF which embeds your Illustrator settings. The printer may still try to override them by making it not the software the boss, but you've provided the details both in the image and in the "package".