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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Global Color Settings for CS1

notatechie - Feb 6, 2008 - 6:43 pm

I am a graphic designer and am having trouble with matching my color:

1. from within applications in CS1

2. from my IMac screen to my Epson Stylus Photo R220 Printer

3. and from my screen to commercial print output.

Please inform how I can achieve maximum matching of viewing and print colors.

I'm going bonkers!

Notatechie!

Natobasso - Feb 7, 2008 - 10:59 am

Certainly don't use your screen to match printer output! Nor should you use your printer.

However, you can get your screen somewhat close if you use a pantone book. Create a swatch onscreen, say 185 red, in illustrator. Make a square of it. Compare that to your pantone book and adjust your monitor accordingly.

Remember that your screen and even your printer will never be exactly the same as the output from a professional printer, namely because no two days are the same for a printer. Some days there's more dust in the air, other days they have more red printing on press that affects everything else they gang run that day together.

Even if you convert a pms to cmyk, you'll have a better color foundation than if you just pick colors from the default palette.

When you pick colors, base them on pantones rather than arbitrarily picking them or using the default colors. In fact, whenever you start a new document, delete all default colors.

Make sure you get iris proofs from your printer and then view an actual press proof in order to monitor how close your printed colors are to what you are seeing on your screen. There's an inherent difference in screen and printed colors that you always have to fight in this biz. (I've been doing this for 13 years now though I'm now primarily a web designer.)

Hope that helps!

notatechie - Feb 7, 2008 - 11:21 am

Thank you for your quick response! You've addressed the commercial print color dilemma, which I am most familiar with because I worked in a print shop for a while. My main concern is knowing the best color settings (re: Working Spaces, Color Management, etc in preferences) for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. The same photo in Photoshop and Illustrator are printing completely differently on my home printer. Can you help me on this issue?

Thank you!
Notatechie, just a designer

notatechie - Feb 7, 2008 - 11:23 am

Natobasso - Feb 7, 2008 - 1:49 pm

I see, you didn't say that before.

Do you have Illustrator set for RGB or CMYK?

notatechie - Feb 7, 2008 - 2:44 pm

Both Illustrator and Photoshop are set for CMYK. . .

Natobasso - Feb 8, 2008 - 9:50 am

To get the best possible color representation try to use InDesign and don't place images in Illustrator if you can help it.

If you are printing images from photoshop, I'd still recommend you use InDesign instead, place your images there.

Make sure all your images you print are 300DPI CMYK TIF files (don't print psd files; in my opinion there are too many variables there with layers and interaction between those).

Lastly, for best results you can export pdf files from your InDesign files and then you are assured of the same image treatment and rip every time.

Hope that helps!

notatechie - Feb 9, 2008 - 10:33 am

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, I use Illustrator and Photoshop mostly and still need to learn my way around InDesign.

Can you tell me the best settings-(in the Color Settings dialog boxes in Illustrator and Photoshop) to use for best cross-application viewing and inkjet printing?

Thank you,
Notatechie

Natobasso - Feb 9, 2008 - 12:54 pm

Like I said, use CMYK for all your print images. Use Pantone colors for all colors, not the defaults. Make sure you use all your images in the same program in the same way.

As long as you haven't changed the color profile in your images in photoshop then that will remain the same/consistent.