Mike wrote:

However, the point here is that if the client sends SWOP, then SWOP is what they reasonably ought to expect to get back. And with large format printing, the issue isn't that they ought to use some marginally larger CMYK space, such as Gracol -- which while, granted, has a somewhat larger gamut than SWOP, is still dwarfed by most large format printers printing on most large format media -- the issue is that they shouldn't be using CMYK at all.

And my experience over many years doing this is that is just never happens. If large format printers get CMYK files, they're invariably SWOP. The client just started working in CMYK in Illustrator, or Corel Draw, or Photoshop, and more than likely doesn't even know where the color settings dialogue is, or what it does.

In that case, there isn't anything that can be done to get whatever color information was stripped out of the file when it was converted to CMYK. All that can be done is to have a well-profiled machine reproduce the file accurately.

-- again, spot on. What I'm thinking about is "upstream" from the print vendor - what if the files created by those clients were not limited to such a small CMYK space? As an aside - how many designers & production people are even aware an AI file can be built in RGB? And it's not just clients, I've seen production files from large print houses - RGB images placed in AI, which will output SWOP, of course. John