Three color spaces and where they belong
sRGB is the small one. It is what browsers, phones and office software assume, and it is the correct space for anything going on a website or into an email. Adobe RGB is wider, particularly in the greens and cyans, and it is the sensible working and delivery space for material heading to print. CMYK is not a wider or narrower version of either — it is a different model describing ink on paper, and it is narrower than both in most of the saturated range. The failure mode that produced the orange brochure is simple: an Adobe RGB file, untagged, opened by software that assumed sRGB, then converted to CMYK from that wrong assumption. Every step was reasonable and the result was garbage.
What a trade should actually ask for
If you print your own material, ask your photographer for two deliverables: sRGB JPEGs with the profile embedded for screen use, and Adobe RGB TIFFs or high-quality JPEGs with the profile embedded for print. Do not ask for CMYK files unless your printer has given you a specific profile to convert to, because a conversion done blind to the paper and press is worse than no conversion. Then tell your designer not to strip profiles on export, which is the default behavior in some cheap layout tools and the cause of a surprising share of bad print jobs. Whatever the format, the delivery folder structure matters as much as the files themselves, which is why I treat how a set is handed over as part of the job rather than an afterthought.
Monitors, and why yours is lying
A monitor straight out of the box is typically too bright by a considerable margin and shifted blue. Judge a photograph on it and you will consistently deliver files that print dark and warm. A hardware calibrator costs less than one wasted print run and takes fifteen minutes. Calibrate to something around 120 candelas per square meter and a 6500K white point for general work, in a room where the light does not change through the day, and recalibrate monthly. The underlying measurement standards for color and light are maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the practical point for a contractor is that “it looked right on my screen” is not a statement about the file at all.
Materials photography is a color problem before it is a light problem
Brick, mortar, stone, stained concrete and roofing granules are the whole product in a lot of trade brochures, and they are all in the range where small color errors are obvious. Shoot a gray card or a color target in the first frame of every lighting setup and use it to set white balance in raw conversion. Photograph sample boards flat, square to the camera, in even light, with the target in the frame. Never grade a materials frame to taste, because the person holding the brochure will be standing in front of the actual wall. If you must warm a set for a house look, exclude the material comparison frames from that treatment and say so.
Proof before you print five thousand
Ask the printer for a contract proof on the actual stock. Uncoated paper will pull warm-toned masonry noticeably duller than a coated sheet, and a photograph that survives one will look flat on the other. Look at the proof under a consistent light source, not under office fluorescents on a Tuesday and daylight on a Thursday. And build in the expectation that a printed brick will never match a screen brick exactly — the goal is a plausible, consistent, defensible rendering, not an identity.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a wide-gamut monitor? Not for most trade work. A calibrated standard-gamut monitor beats an uncalibrated wide-gamut one every time.
Should photographs be sharpened before print? Yes, and differently from screen sharpening. Ask the printer or leave it to them rather than double-sharpening.
What resolution does a brochure photograph need? 300 pixels per inch at final printed size. A full-page image on letter stock wants roughly 2550 by 3300 pixels.