it depends on how critical the color is and how much color management experience you have -- i tend to leave color conversion to the print house or separators because their systems are calibrated correctly for the machines they will be printing to (hopefully!!) but if the impetus is all on YOU for color management, then i'd rather do it than have the freelancer doing it cuz then i have more control over the situation and can convert them how i want to.

as for being an outdated practice... he's a looney. and lazy.

Whether the freelancer considers the practice of saving to CMYK is outdated or not is a moot point. This person's responsibility is to supply to you what you requested. While some printers will do in-RIP conversions, he needs to supply you with what your printer is requesting...files that will get the job done...end of story.

I've been in design and production for about 20 years, and to me, clean files are Job One. Your printer will love you for a month of Sundays if you send them files that have little to no problems with them. I agree with you on that your clients need to see as close to the final product as possible. We all know that if the final printed product is not the same as what they saw on proof, there is strong potential for a client not wanting to pay for the print run. There is usually not much color shift when converting images from RGB to CMYK, except for instances where a lot of bright reds, blues or greens are used...not much can be done about that, but someone experienced in color can make adjustments so that the difference isn't that noticeable.

Are you giving the printer PDFs or are you giving them InDesign/Quark files with all associated artwork? If you're creating PDFs, the printer can usually send you their profile so that your PDF-making can go without a hitch (hopefully).

I had a printer (person) tell me that if I was sending stuff in for digital printing, it was best to leave the files as RGB. If I sent them as CMYK, they'd have converted them back to RGB and then let the print machine's profile do the conversion. It seemed odd to me, but I didn't want to argue. Should I be placing CMYK images into these files?

I've sent identical files to (digital) print, except with one version RGB and the other CMYK. The result was much better color on the RGB file.

I usually send PDF's to offset magazine printers with all background colors as CMYK and just leave the photos as RGB because I often have to make digital prints of the same files and I'm too lazy to make duplicate CMYK version of every picture that goes into my work (hundreds!) Maybe that's the worst of both worlds? I guess I should just set up an action in PS and run them all...but they're usually such small photos anyway....

Color is the hardest part of print production in my mind.

freaky freelancer is a kook. Sounds like a designer to me... I've noticed that because an application will allow you to import a jpeg than it will print just fine... whatever...

Currently I am working at a publication and work with the same printers... This makes my job soooo easy (I color correct and could totally geek out on image conversions). I provide our advertisers with as much information they can understand... if they don't know how to use a profile, I would prefer converting to CMYK myself. I received the profile from one of the two print houses I work with, and it works. Initially I could not get them to give me one, and I worked with them until I got what I needed so that the images print they way I want them to.

I've done all types of design and have worked with literally hundreds of printers. I also dig the production side of things... Anyway, my point is this: Talk to your printer and see what they need, how they would like to receive your work, etc.

If they want you to do the color conversions, ask for a profile. That is critical if you are a color freak.

Hm... are u sending digital proofs (PDFs) to your client? I would recommend converting the images to CMYK and then when saving as a PDF make sure the images are RGB. That's just me... I like making smaller proof files for emailing... the company IT personal will like you better... (If you convert to CMYK first and then back to RGB, the image color will not shift... CMYK is a smaller color gamut.

It is important to work with everyone, even the freaky freelancer... I would recommend subtle educating to the freak.

Thanks everyone, for your advice. To be more clear, I work for a magazine publisher. I am essentially filling the shoes of an art director, since ours left and was not replaced....so I do doubt my knowledge sometimes.

We send 5-7 magazines at a time to the printer, each with 50-60 pages, so making sure every single ad and image is technically perfect is very important. It is also important to me to keep my printers happy (So far I've been successful), because I know how it feels to get my evenings eaten up by other designer's laziness and I'd like my printers to forgive me when I do let an odd mistake slip through.

I always send my files in CYMK to my printers and assume that this is what they prefer. When something is spot, it gets marked automatically for my correction (RGBs do slip through). We have very nice calibrated monitors provided by the printer, so the color conversion is set up for accurate representation in CYMK.

I get a lot of ads provided by clients with spot and rgb colors, and if I convert them I have to send a proof with the conversion or my clients WILL get testy. They get testy when the color of our paper changes (oh it got brigher white and now my off-white background looks off-pearl!) so I do have to cover my butt.

I think we resolved the issue. Thanks!