Generate consistent colors (Photoshop) (six)

Generate consistent colors when sending images to the press

With a color-managed workflow, you can control the appearance of colors in documents so that they remain the same or similar colors when they are sent to the press for printing.

Color management of documents to be printed on the press:

Set up the device for color management

Calibrate the monitor and create a monitor profile. Use Adobe Gamma (Windows), Display Calibrator (Mac OS), or use third-party software and hardware for more accurate calibration. If your printer comes with configuration files, make sure they are installed on your computer. In an important job that requires accurate color rendering, it is highly recommended that you create a custom profile for each type of paper that your printer uses.

Setting up a Photoshop color management system

Choose Edit> Color Settings (Windows) or Photoshop> Color Settings (Mac OS) to specify color management settings. You can choose presets from the Settings menu in the Color Settings dialog box, or you can customize settings. You should select at least one Prepress Default setting, which specifies Adobe RGB (1998) as the RGB workspace. Adobe RGB (1998) is a large color space that contains all the colors used for printing. In general, sRGB is not recommended as a workspace because it is smaller and some of the important colors that can be printed are not in that space.

Synchronize color settings between Photoshop and Illustrator or InDesign

If you plan to place Photoshop images in Illustrator or InDesign documents, be sure to use the Color Settings dialog box in each application to synchronize the color settings. For information on maintaining consistent colors between Photoshop and other Adobe applications, see Maintaining consistent colors between Photoshop and other Adobe applications.

Edit images in Photoshop

Depending on the selected color management scheme, you will edit the image in the current RGB workspace or edit the image in the workspace profile embedded in the document. Whether you convert a document to an RGB workspace or keep a profile embedded in a document depends entirely on your personal needs. For example, if you think of Adobe RGB as a workspace that fits all your printed images, consider choosing Adobe RGB as an RGB workspace, then choose the "Convert to Workspace" scenario, and always process your images within Adobe RGB.

(Optional) Placing RGB or CMYK Images in Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator

In general, images printed on commercial printers are not printed directly from Photoshop but are printed from a page layout program (such as Adobe InDesign) or a program that supports printing (such as Adobe Illustrator). For more information on importing Photoshop files into Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator, see Adobe InDesign Help or Adobe Illustrator Help.

(Optional) Works completely in RGB mode

Make sure to mark the image file with an RGB workspace profile. If a printer or prepress supplier uses a color management system, they should be able to use the profile of your document to accurately convert to CMYK to generate film and printing plates.

(Optional) Switch to CMYK

Before you finish image editing, you should always process the image in RGB mode. After editing, please convert the image to CMYK mode and make some other color and hue adjustments. Be sure to check the highlights and dark areas of the image. If necessary, use the Levels, Curves, or Hue/Saturation commands to correct the hue. These image adjustments should be just a few very small adjustments. After completing the final adjustment, send the CMYK file to the printing or prepress supplier.

Generate a consistent color when creating an image for the web

Maintaining consistent colors in the images used for the Web is not an easy task. You can control how images are displayed on your monitor, but you cannot control how the image appears on other monitors. In addition, most browsers do not recognize the document's embedded profile. They only send the raw RGB values ​​to the monitor. Without a configuration file, the computer's color management system must guess what color the document's RGB values ​​actually represent. Although it seems unlikely that a consistent color will be generated in the images used for the Web, there are some actions you can take to make these colors as consistent as possible.

Keep consistent colors in your web image:

Set up the monitor to meet the requirements of the color management workflow

Calibrate the monitor and create a monitor profile. Use intuitive calibration programs such as Adobe Gamma (Windows), Display Calibrator (Mac OS), or use third-party software and hardware for greater accuracy.

Set up color management in Photoshop

Choose Edit> Color Settings (Windows) or Photoshop> Color Settings (Mac OS), and specify color management settings. You can choose Web Graphics Defaults from the Settings menu in the Color Settings dialog box, or customize the settings. If you do not want to use the preset options, it is recommended that you use at least sRGB as a workspace. sRGB is a smaller color space than Adobe RGB (1998) and it can represent the configuration of a general monitor. If you use the sRGB profile to mark an image, there is a greater chance that more monitors will correctly display the colors of the image.

(Optional) Convert documents to sRGB profiles

If you tag an image with a profile other than sRGB, you can convert the profile to sRGB, which makes it possible to maintain a consistent color appearance on a variety of displays. Choose Image> Mode> Convert to Profile and select sRGB as Profile under Target Space.

Stored as a Web Format

Choose File > Save as Web Format. The "Save as Web" format command gives you greater control over how your image is optimized. You can specify the colors that are preserved when the image is stored in the GIF or PNG-8 format. If you use the JPEG format, you can embed an ICC profile in the file. Currently, only Internet Explorer (Mac OS) and OmniWeb (Mac OS) can read embedded profiles in images, provided that the user has the ColorSync option enabled in their preferences. If the image does not have an embedded profile, Internet Explorer (Mac OS) and OmniWeb (Mac OS) assume an sRGB profile for the image.

Source: China University Student Network