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Why does my printed brochure look different then it did on my computer monitor?

Computer monitors display colors in RGB (red, green, blue) and printing presses print in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black).  Computer monitors digitally illuminate RGB into thousands of brilliant tones and colors.

Printing presses use four colors, CMYK, to create many variations of colors but do not have the benefit of digital illumination because they are printing on paper rather then displaying an image on a monitor.  Monitors also do not have to deal with ink absorption.  Different papers will absorb ink differently.  For instance, glossy coated paper will absorb much less ink then a matte uncoated  stock would - making the fiinished product look much more vibrant.  Whenever you deisgn a brochure that will be sent to a professional printer you should alway design your project or covert it to CMYK  before saving it as a PDF and sending it to the printing service.  Most design software will guide you through the process of designing or converting to CMYK before you save your file as a PDF.  Designing in CMYK will give you the closest representation of what the finished product will look like.

A note on using black text in your brochure:  Make sure you use only black and have it set to 100% or your text will look muddy.

Currently a PDF is the standard which carries the most information, allowing you to send a complete publications to press. It is also suitable for soft-proofing, distribution on the Internet, and file archiving, as it is completely self-contained. But to print PDF, it is best to print to a device with true PostScript capabilities to get the highest quality output.

Most service bureaus that are "PDF-friendly" will have third-party applications that take PDF files and impose them, trap them, preflight them, and send them to a RIP. As these tools become more powerful, more people will begin delivering PDF files for printing. So the next time the next time you export that file out of your favorite drawing tool, or are ready to send your job to your prepress operator, think about sending a PDF file instead. If you work with your printer and plan properly, you're likely to be very pleased with the result.