I am curious about what palette to use for what purpose. I know you are supposed to use CMYK palette when designing for separations printing processes, but on the other hand - you could use the RGB palette just as well, if you have a color calibrated system and a printer profile and if you leave a PDF to the printer, which I suppose most people do. It works if you set the color output to CMYK and use the printer ICC profile for conversion.
So, what is your choice regarding color models? It would be interesting to hear how you all work.
Hello there Shabbadang,It depends really on the assignment, and from time to time.I have different colours, my own palette of colours, so that even if I work with RGB it comes out as I like it when I cmyk it. But then of course, as long as I dont know the quality of the paper, or dont have a profile from my client or the printer (tryckeriet eller kunden), I go by instinct when colouring my illustrations I make for magazines and newspapers (Tabloid, morning newspaper or glossy magazines paper).If the client and myself set up a profile then of course I follow that specified colour profile, weather its cmyk, RGB or even PMS/Pantone.But 99% of the time I ask the client questions if necessary how they like to have it delivered. There are times, if not so often, but still, when the client ask for RGB.
Hej Stefan,
Your answer is a bit elusive ... But I try to understand it [:-)] Anyway, my question really boils down to me thinking the RGB palette is sort of easier to work with. The CMYK palette gets rahter dul when you turn color calibration (CM) on, while the RGB seem to retain a wider gamut (but that must be wrong, mustn't it?) so it's easier to find a color you like. The CMYK palette gets rather muddy, especially the darker greens, with CM turned on. So I'd rather use RGB, buth then again, you don't want to be too far off gamut.
Sally Bode said:Actually there are some colors which cannot be mapped and there are no real good substitutes.
Well, all RGB colors must be mapped to something, and that's where the rendering intents come into play. But when the results are as bad as I described above I find it ridiculous. I mean when RGB cyan (G255B255) is mapped to something less than C100, then surely something must be wrong. RGB is the larger color space and thus shouldn't look like the lesser when printed. Well, it might be just this printer profile, I don't know. Cause when I print without applying the printer profile both RGB cyan and CMYK cyan look the same. Thus, the printer profile is actually worsening the output rather than improving it. Do you see what I mean?
Sally Bode said:I don't understand when these tools are available, that you want it to work differently?
I have no problem with the way CM works in Corel Draw. It is almost comprehensible compared to some other programs (no names) I've seen and used. It seems my hangup stems from the poor accuracy of some profiles I am using. And therefore I am asking some questions.
>I mean when RGB cyan (G255B255) is mapped to something less than C100, then surely something must be wrong.
Here is where you have a misunderstanding. If sRGB G255 B255 is mapped to C100 what do they map ProPhoto G255 B255 to? These are two different pure blues in RGB and what would you have them mapped to?
You're treating RGB colors as absolute and they are not.
David Milisock said:what do they map ProPhoto G255 B255 to?
I don't know what that is, but I suppose it's a larger RGB space than SRGB and I suppose it will have to be mapped to the same. I mean you are only working in one RGB space at the time, so why bother about the others? And how much could it differ? The inkreading figures I presented are way out as far as I can see anyway. Agree?
David Milisock said: You're treating RGB colors as absolute and they are not.
I'm not sure about that, I just think RGB should be mapped to make use of the printers whole gamut. Why less? I think it's ridiculous that a larger color space should be represented by an unnecessarily small color space. Well, I can just turn CM off and print the values uncalibrated and I will get the larger gamut, but then I will have no idea when looking on screen what they will look like as printed. Only that they will be as vivid as possible.
To me that is not what CM is about. It is about letting you know on screen what the printed matter will look like, not to alter the appearance of the printed matter. Agree?
I have downloaded your Phaser driver, what a Charley Foxtrot!
First you can screw up the CMYK process in the driver settings. Second RGB in the office color is passed along in the postscript stream and we can assume that the conversion is guided by the dialog in the more options dialog.
In the press match regardless of the setting the proper CMYK numbers are being passed along so this would imply that a tone curve may be applied by changing the setting as the postscript stream passes through the engine.
To control any RGB to CMYK conversions one will have to do them in the application and live with the final result as there is no way to use a color profile with the printer.
I do not have the printer but those of you who do can use the different press match settings and create a solid CMYK color swatch and print it to the printer. Compare this print to a current process CMYK color guide. The larger the mismatch between the print and the guide the farther out your prints will be. Many hardware providers do not use standard commercial pigments. This is done to widen the standard CMYK color space. In my opinion this device is a poor choice for color managed digital workflows.
David Milisock said: To control any RGB to CMYK conversions one will have to do them in the application and live with the final result as there is no way to use a color profile with the printer.
I use to select "ICM is handled by the host computer" in the Layout/Advanced tab in the printer driver. I then select "None" under TekColor tab. That would hinder any built-in profiles from interfering, don't you think?
If I use the canned profile with the printer, I believe it comes into play, but I don't believe the ICC profile is any good. Perhaps you want to take a look at it, you can download it here: http://www.support.xerox.com/go/results.asp?Xtype=download&prodID=8500_8550&Xlang=en_US&Xcntry=USA
I would have to get the complete documentation for this device. Just looking at it makes me want to puke purely an office approach to graphics. I suggest a Cannon PS print engine to all my clients, it speaks graphics as it should be spoken. These engines are the best I've seen when it comes to making digital prints that look like a press sheet, a Next Press or I Gen print.