Just got off the phone with a publisher that want to give me a bid on producing one of my games. The problem? Like most of us here, I use PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS to design the cards. In case you haven't tried it, PE is the best bang for your buck out there in making your game look good.
For $100 you get 'PHOTOSHOP LITE' - it's a steal. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles [which you don't really need anyway] and is probably the easiest to use program ADOBE makes.
When I design my stuff in PE, it comes out in RGB mode because PE doesn't support CMYK. So sometimes my stuff out stunning [like GODS ALONG THE NILE] and sometimes it gets washed out [like CARACTOR MATCH]. You can see samples of both on BGG or my website- terrangames.us
I've contacted the folks at ADOBE, but it seems all you can do is post something on their 'PHOTOSHOP FAMILY COMMUNITY SUPPORT SITE'. If you ever go there, please add a comment.
If anybody has found a converter program [that doesn't cost an arm & a leg], please let me know. I and my publisher will be happy to hear about it!
Dral - let me clarify. These are my PRINTERS, not my PUBLISHERS. I don't have a publisher - I 'publish' my own stuff. I create my own artwork, but when I submit it to the various POD printers, sometimes my RGB artwork comes out stunning [like I made it] and sometimes all the cool textures I gave it become washed out when the CMYK printing machines 'translate' it [or whatever you call it].
Matt - I have no idea what the problem with 'conversion' is. I've worked with this printer before - she REALLY wants to use my artwork as I present it to her. I know this person - she's not trying to screen anyone out. As she understands it [and she should understand it - it's her company] all her printing presses are set up to take CMYK images and reproduce them faithfully. Images created using RGB are always a crapshoot [as we both found out], which is why she wanted to make sure my current project is CMYK so the images come out as I design them [not as the machine spits them out].
Yesterday she spent an hour with me on the phone walking through PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS looking for the CMYK filter [or button or whatever] and was shocked to discover there wasn't one. She considers CMYK as the 'industry standard' and couldn't understand why ADOBE would put out a product that doesn't render images in that mode. She's going to be contacting the folks at ADOBE [she has one of those 'professional' accounts], but I don't think she's going to get far. I called ADOBE myself [thinking perhaps PE10 might have included that feature - I'm using PE9], but after talking to the sales rep [I'm not worthy to talk to any of the big-wigs there] he just confirmed that if I want CMYK ability, I'll just have to buy the standard PHOTOSHOP suite.
I checked the Money Tree out back, but all it's producing is pennies [I'm using the wrong fertilizer - I just KNOW it!]. No help there. Besides - I don't really WANT to use the full PHOTOSHOP suite - I'm comfortable with PE. For those of us that are computer challenged, PE is perfect. Just enough stuff to do what I want without getting lost in all the bells and whistles.... except for CMYK.
Thanks for the two links. I will give them a try [and recommend them to my printer as well]. And if you'll drop me a line directly, I'll be happy to let you take a look at some of my images I've had problems with - thanks for the offer!
BTW KAndrew - I have tried the GIMP thingie before, but couldn't figure out how to use it. Thanks anyway!