Bridge showing different colours in pdf vs jpeg

[1234]

So, we are sending photos off to a printer who needs them in a pdf form, so I have saved all of the photos as a pdf and as a jpeg so that the rest of the group can view and approve.  When I look at them in bridge, the pdf file previews look quite washed out compared to the jpegs but when I open both files up in photoshop they look identical.  Should I just be ignoring the previews?  The last set of cards we created didn't look washed out on the previews, have I saved the pdfs wrong?

[Damien Symonds]

Ooh ... tricky one.

Could you send me one of the file pairs?

https://spaces.hightail.com/uplink/BellePhotography

[1234]

Done!  I have definitely done something wrong, in bridge it shows the pdfs are srgb but when I open them up in photoshop, it says CMYK at the top

[1234]

Okay I have definitely somehow saved it in the incorrect colour space, if I open the pdf in photoshop, convert to profile working srgb and then save, it shows up normally in the bridge preview.  Still a little confused why it shows srgb in bridge though.

[Damien Symonds]

All good now?

[1234]

well... the jpeg previews match the pdf previews so at least that is good!  Two of them were in fact in srgb but the images weren't saved as flattened (but as an editable photoshop pdf) so once flattened it was all good.  Although three of the black and white ones now look darker but I am wondering if it has to do with the below question:

Now, one more question - the pdfs show in bridge (and in file explorer properties) as 414x306 pixels but the jpegs are 1725 x 1275.  When I open the pdfs in photoshop they show 1725 x 1275.  These images have been sized and sharpened to your sharpening class instructions.  Is this how it should be?

[Damien Symonds]

I need more of the backstory here.  Did the printer say why they require pdfs rather than jpegs?

What kind of printing is it?

[1234]

It's a commercial printer (not a photography printer) - they asked for a high resolution pdf - we are printing hundreds of 4.25x5.75 cards

[Damien Symonds]

Ok, so did they ask for CMYK?

[Damien Symonds]

I'm sure you realise you've done something drastically wrong.  Your PDF file size is outrageously large.

[1234]

No RGB

[Damien Symonds]

You're dead certain about that?

[1234]

yeah I confirmed with the girl twice.  Yeah for some reason that pdf is very large (although the one I sent you before was not flattened).  the rest seem to be 4-6mb.  I am sure I am doing something wrong LOL

[Damien Symonds]

If your file had any text or vector shapes in it, it would be correct not to flatten.

But since it's just an image, you definitely must flatten before saving.

[Damien Symonds]

26 minutes ago, 1234 said:

Now, one more question - the pdfs show in bridge (and in file explorer properties) as 414x306 pixels but the jpegs are 1725 x 1275.  When I open the pdfs in photoshop they show 1725 x 1275.  These images have been sized and sharpened to your sharpening class instructions.  Is this how it should be?

Bridge is just showing the thumbnail size I guess.  It's no big deal.

[1234]

Just looking at the last set of cards we sent to them, all my pdfs are under 3mb.  I have absolutely no idea what I have done this time.  All images should be flattened now but some are still incredibly large.  Do you have instructions on saving images as a pdf somewhere?  Im about to just completely start over here lol

Just now, Damien Symonds said:

Bridge is just showing the thumbnail size I guess.  It's no big deal.

That would explain why it was showing srgb when it definitely wasn't!

[Damien Symonds]

I do have instructions for saving pdfs, but they're specifically for files with text and shapes in them.

Files like yours should only ever be saved as jpegs.

I'm sorry you've got such a stupid printer

I expect you'll find the big files are 16-bit instead of 8-bit.

[1234]

Ahhhhh do you have a link to those? or is it a class?  We also create a calendar every year that we sent to a different printer as a PDF so would be very interested in seeing that!

[Damien Symonds]

https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/05/making-pdfs-from-photoshop.html

[Damien Symonds]

2 minutes ago, 1234 said:

We also create a calendar every year that we sent to a different printer as a PDF

What about the calendars?  Are they CMYK?

[1234]

ahhh sadly we use indesign.

Ha - well.... technically yes but but the photos are in it as srgb, I tried to get the cmyk profile and they told me not to bother and just send it over as srgb as they strip away the colour profile anyhow.  That being said we do several print proofs so I can make any changes needed before I send to press.  I have only ever had to correct one photo so it has worked so far.

[Damien Symonds]

2 minutes ago, 1234 said:

ahhh sadly we use indesign.

Gee, don't be sad about that.  ID is fantastic for this kind of work.

But what about the dog photos?  You didn't use ID for those, did you?

[1234]

It is great!  And honestly I could not imagine doing it in photoshop for sure.

Its sent to the printer all in one pdf (28 pages or something)

Okay I went back to the images, flattened them first and resaved them as a pdf  and voila they are now around the same size as the jpegs!  I would say this should deter me from working at 11:30 at night but sadly I do not think it will

[1234]

Ok two questions for you! 1. Curious - what's the issue with saving images as PDFs?

2. I saw that you have a prepress class, is the InDesign one available yet?

[Damien Symonds]

5 hours ago, 1234 said:

1. Curious - what's the issue with saving images as PDFs?

PDFs are so important for commercial printing.

But when all that's being printed is just an image, it's completely silly to demand PDF.  Because the image will just be a jpeg file inside the added complexity of a PDF file.  As you've just found out, it's too much extra that can go wrong.

5 hours ago, 1234 said:

2. I saw that you have a prepress class, is the InDesign one available yet?

Not yet, sorry.