Why is my blue createspace cover printing purple?
October 18, 2011 7:39 PM   Subscribe

I am attempting to publish a book using createspace.com Any idea why my Blue cover is printing as light purple?

The details of this are boring, but I will share them with you if you are interested.

Here's what happened:

1. The artist sent me a finalized cover. It was a 12 meg PDF, hit all the createspace specs. I uploaded it and ordered a proof.

2. I received the proof. It looked slightly darker than the artwork, but workable.

3. The artist took me up on putting her name on the cover. This was fine since I had some changes to make to the inside of the book. I uploaded her second cover, but attempted to flatten it in illustrator, as createspace was giving me a 'transparency warning."

4. I received the second proof. Light purple. I thought this may have been from my messing with it.

5. I uploaded the second file the artist sent me, where all that had changed was adding her name to the back cover. I ordered four copies, thinking it would print blue, just like the first one.

6. Just got four light purple copies today.

I sent an email to createspace support, but won't hear back from them tomorrow. I am frustrated, since this is all out of my hands (and ordering proofs takes time and costs money.)

If you'd care to take a look at the PDF I'm using, as well as a comparison of the blue/purple proofs side by side, I could send you some files. I don't want to post them here since the project still hasn't seen the light of day yet.

Thanks for any advice!
posted by JoeGoblin to Media & Arts (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Could this be a case of RGB vs. CMYK processing?
posted by katillathehun at 7:43 PM on October 18, 2011


Response by poster: That's what I thought I might have screwed up...but according to their submission reqs:


Images may be CMYK or RGB color. All images should be sized at 100%, flattened to one layer and placed in your document at a minimum resolution of 300 DPI.
posted by JoeGoblin at 7:47 PM on October 18, 2011


Yes, they accept both- but did you send CYMK the first time and RGB the second? (or switched)
posted by titanium_geek at 7:55 PM on October 18, 2011


Response by poster: The most recent file that I submitted to them, (which turned out purple) is labeled as CMYK when I open it in photoshop. That's how the artist sent it to me. I believe that's what the first one was as well (the one that turned out blue) but I don't have it anymore.

Is there any way to tell if it's mismatched? Care to take a look at the cover?
posted by JoeGoblin at 7:58 PM on October 18, 2011


The best way would be to compare the blue file to the purple file. Does the artist have the original blue one? Me-mail me the cover and I'll have a look.

(not expert)
posted by titanium_geek at 8:17 PM on October 18, 2011


Hmm. Having seen the blue cover, and the two side by side.. well, I can see why you'd expect blue, not purple.

Thought- they aren't still using the dud version you messed with?

Sorry I can't be of more help. It looks like it's a create space problem though.
posted by titanium_geek at 8:40 PM on October 18, 2011


Response by poster: OK, I will be talking to them tomorrow. I just wanted to see if there was anything blatant I was overlooking due to my not knowing what the hell I'm doing.
posted by JoeGoblin at 8:42 PM on October 18, 2011


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