proofing for commercial printing

[Karen Chandler]

Jan - or anyone? Question for Mac

I have chosen several out of gamut colors for my layouts. I did it because in every case, the recommened color (in the little triangle warning box) looked muddy. I read Melissa Piccone's info that Linda referred to in the newsletter and tried proofing my colors for commercial printing. Most of the layout was grayed out indicating there will be a color shift when it is printed. She indicates that adjustments should be made if needed. But does not indicate how to make the adjustments. I would like to make some color changes on my layouts and want to do it right this time.

Thank you,
Karen

p.s. I have designed using sRGBiEC61966-2.1 as the working color space. I also tried to calibrate my monitor, but it was a disaster - all colors looked awful. I went back to the original setting.

[photobookmemories]

Hi Karen, it's Melissa! There are several things I want to address. I recommend you design your pages in Adobe 1998 color space. This gives you the largest number of colors to work with for design. Ultimately the colors are converted to CMYK for printing, but starting out with a larger gamut is best.

CMYK colors are going to look "muddy" because they aren't as saturated as RGB. RGB light - coming from your computer monitor. CMYK is ink on paper. They work in very different ways. You add RGB colors together and they make white, add CMYK colors together and they make black.

The most problematic colors tend to be greens, blues, purples and highly saturated colors. You can't print RGB green - it's flourecent. Purples tend to do the most shifting in print.

If your monitor isn't calibrated, none of this matters. You are not seeing the true colors in the original or the proof.

I have spent so much time learning about color spaces and experimenting with getting the right color. If I added it all up over the years, It would probably total over 1000 hours. With everything I learn I realize there is so much more to learn about color. I design my pages and digital designs in Adobe 1998 and print. I don't even proof my pages anymore.

I'll share with you the most obvious things that affect the final print - and it's not about color. Here are my concerns for my customers prints:


Red eye - they design beautiful pages but they don't take the time to remove red-eye from their photos. It looks worse in print than on-screen.

Blown out highlights - the flash was too close or the photo is over exposed. This causes banding when printing and cute little baby faces look really bad with nasty flash glare on their shiny little foreheads, cheeks and noses. This takes a bit more effort to fix, but it's worth it.

Photos with a color cast - placing photos with different color casts together looks bad - some are cool, some are warm, it's distracting and very noticeable. Making a few adjustments improves everything.

Photos with no adjustments at all - photos that are too dark, too light, taken in bright sunlight. A little tweak with the shadow highlight filter would do wonders and is quick.


If it looks bad on-screen, it's going to look a lot worse in print.

Here is a link to the article on my blog about proofing your pages. There are some other links at the end of the blog post for more information.

http://photobookmemories.com/blog/wordpress/?p=261

[Priss]

Melissa your information is just so valuable. THANK YOU for these wonderful pointers. Post processing your pictures is the most critical thing that you can possibly do, and putting the time into a layout without leveling, sharpening, and fixing those shadows, red-eyes and distracting elements in a photo is A number one. Thank you for this important reminder.