Print Colors

[Tommi]

Normally the colors can be converted from one color-space to another. But I already noticed, that converting from RGB to CMYK or vice-versa color changes can even be seen on the monitor.
Predefined palettes based on official color specifications can be useful when having the according printed version at hand. There are books which contain these specified color palettes. I'd use these books as a guide for choosing the right colors in your application.

[Swizzle]

One of the reasons that your colors change when you switch to CMYK is because it's for dealing with ink and RGB is for dealing with light. You add more light in RGB to make things brighter and you add more ink in CMYK to make things darker. There's also a whole ink devoted to black in CMYK, whereas you just take away light in RGB to make things darker.

I would suggest that if you're going to do things that are meant for printing you start out in CMYK so that you get the most accurate colors. That'll save you a lot of grief if you're going to professional printers and you want things to be as accurate as possible.

[itsallgoode9]

what you need to do most of all is to get some color calibration software for you monitor and read up about color profiles and color calibration. check out Greytag Macbeth color calibration tools. They are pretty much considered the best. But if you can't afford to do that (and happen to own a pantone PROCESS chip set), a cheap way to sorta do this (it's better than nothing at all) is using the Pantone Process color palette in Photoshop, and set up page with with some color swatches of different hues. and a step gray scale too. Then tweak the colors on your printer until it matches the pantone chips as close as you can. Then change the settings on your monitor until the color matches the color sheet you printed. Then you use those monitor settings whenever you are planning on printing your work. Now you won't want to use those settings when you are working on work which will only be seen on a computer because the settings will more than likely look strange on your monitor (probally very yellow tinted). But anyways, you can do that if you happen to have a pantone book and have no other options.

[newezra]

One other thing to do is to try to configure your monitor as best as possible to true colors. There is software/hardware out there that will help you configure your screen.

Always start off your print jobs with CMYK settings. When you allow an application like Photoshop to convert your colors you stand risk of it misinterpriting your colors.

One last tip... you can also ask your printer for a press check to make sure that the colors are perfect before the final run happens.

[spades]

Thanx, y'all

[halo]

good advice in this thread...to summarise

1) calibrate and profile your monitor and switch on colour management in PS (its actually on always but having it set to off makes certain assumptions which the novice wont understand and will likely lead to screwed colour). Unfortunately since v5 you can never escape colour management in PS and therefore it will always affect your image adversely if you have it wrong, even if its set to off.

2) get PS to use generated monitor profile for display only

3) learn about conversion settings between spaces, the pros and cons of each colour space and how certain operations affect each

4) profile your output device and make sure that your image ends up in that profiles space when printing to that device

I tend to work in RGB, a device independant rgb space such as AdobeRGB (NEVER USE MONITOR RGB AS YOUR SPACE UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERT) with the CYMK previw on...theres a few reasons for this

1) RGB has a wider gamut than CYMK, although not all colours convert it does allow you to push the file more before the conversion...push a cymk file a lot and it will break up

2) RGB files aren't seperated...cymk ones are, which means the black plate generation is worked out specificly to the target cymk device profile..as black generation changes dramatically and black can replace a lot of dark colours on some devices, working in cymk may leave you with an inflexible device if you have a file designed for multiple targets.

3) not all filters work in cymk

4) certain colour tools behave more predicably in rgb

the cons of working in RGB is that its not always possible to target a specific cymk plate using certain tools ie levels, and there is also the possibility that even if you manage to target a predicted cymk split in rgb the conversion may shift it.

Colour theory requires study to avoid pitfalls....start at my sticky thread at the top for links to a good site about colour setup in PS.

[Her0d]

One more thing: avoid direct converting from RGB->CMYK and vice versa. Better results can be achieved when converting first to Lab: RGB->Lab->CMYK.

[Swizzle]

One more thing: avoid direct converting from RGB->CMYK and vice versa. Better results can be achieved when converting first to Lab: RGB->Lab->CMYK.Ha! That's something I didn't know. I must try it.

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