 |
Shop Categories |
 |
|
|
Manufacturers |
|
|
|
|
|
Information |
|
|
|
| Introduction |
 |
|
|
An Introduction
Modern production equipment, combining the latest cameras, scanners, computers, software and printing systems, have revolutionised the way in which we work.
The internet and email has altered how we communicate with each other. The advances in digital technology is allowing everybody to quickly and efficiently capture, create and distribute images in a digital format where it is ultimately reproduced using a vast array of equipment.
Ultimately, this is helping to automate and simplify production processes, and to reduce costs in all sectors of photography, print, publishing and design.
But, as ever, technical advancements create new problems, which need to be conquered.
The Problem - Maintain Colour Accuracy
Whatever your area of interest, you will at some time have had problems with colour accuracy. The photograph of your dog, taken on your new digital camera, which ended up looking completely different when viewed on your monitor. Or the design that you spent hours putting together that looked completely different when printed on your desktop printer.
Without any form of management in place, colour becomes subjective and open to interpretation, instead of the science that it actually is.
As you are probably aware, different devices capture and produce colour in different ways, which is known as its 'colour space'.
The two that you are most likely familiar with are CMYK and RGB. Scanners and monitors use RGB, whilst most printers use CMYK to produce colour.
The problem with these two colour spaces is that they are both 'device dependent'.
What this means is, if you take two different printers and output the same file to each one, you will most likely end up with different results. If you don't, you have been very lucky!
The same can be said for scanners, monitors and digital cameras. This can best be summed up with the human eye, which forms colour using RGB. The interpretation of colour from one person's eye to the next will differ. So, without any form of colour management in place, you have no way of ensuring that an image displayed on your screen will look the same when printed.
This is easily shown in the following diagram.
As you can see, in a non-colour managed workflow the colour accuracy of an image is left completely to chance. It is a fingers crossed approach, which usually means waste in time, materials and money!
The Solution - The ICC Profiled & Colour Managed Workflow
To find a solution to the problem of colour fidelity, eight industry leading vendors (incl. Adobe, Apple, IBM and AGFA) formed The International Color Consortium in 1993, to create and promote the standardisation of an open, cross platform colour management system.
The main outcome of this cooperation was the development of the ICC profile specification.
At the heart of colour management is the ability to 'profile' each device within your own working environment, including digital cameras, scanners, displays, proofing devices and printers. Each ICC profile contains information describing the accuracy of the device, plus the range of colours it can read, display or produce, known as a 'colour gamut'. This enables images and artwork to pass through your workflow, between systems and applications, and retain its colour fidelity.
The result - consistent, accurate colour as illustrated here:
Once implemented, a colour managed workflow will help you reap real financial benefits and remove all of those frustrations and headaches that you used to get whilst trying to produce accurate colour.
You will quickly save time and increase both productivity and profitability, and save money on wasted materials and rejected work. Clients will appreciate the consistency in the work you produce for them and the efficient way in which it is produced, whilst your competitors will still be scratching in the dark.
A colour managed workflow will enable you to match colours across all your various input and output devices, enabling you to quickly adjust colour before it becomes costly.
So, once you have implemented an accurate colour management system, all of your devices start to handle colour in the same way, irrespective of what colour space they are working in, or what kind of device it is.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 0 items |
|
|
|
|
Bestsellers |
|
|
|
|
|
| There are currently no product reviews |
|
|
|
|
Quick Find |
|
|
|
