articles/Media/proofbeyondreasonabledoubt-page6

Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing - part 6 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

by Mike McNamee Published 01/10/2008

Press Simulation - Cross Rendering

The Sequence in Detail - proofing to Euroscale Coated FOGRA 27

1. Set up Photoshop Color Settings with Europe Prepress 2 Defaults (ie FOGRA 27 for CMYK)
2. Click View>Proof Setup then select Working CMYK
3. Click File>Print with Preview and set up the dialogue box as shown, namely
Show More Options, Color Management
Proof Set up (your working CMYK)
Print Space - your bespoke RGB-based printing profile for your local, proofing printer. Intent - Absolute Colormetric
4. Click Page Set Up then Printer. Check you have the right printer in the drop-down list, then click Properties. Click Advanced, set the media type, Select the '¤ No Color Adjustment' radio button and select the resolution from the drop-down list.

Proofing with Adobe Products

The common colour architecture of the Adobe product range means that an image printed from Photoshop should match that same image printed from Illustrator, InDesign or Acrobat. However, to do so, the colour must be managed in an identical way from all applications. Adobe Bridge has a button in the Edit menu drop-down called 'Creative Suite Color Settings' from where all the colour management settings may be synchronised.

Application Set-up

For printing in the UK you should set up your colour to use European Prepress 2 Defaults (in Photoshop; Edit>Color Settings>Settings>Europe Prepress 2 Defaults). This will give you Adobe RGB (1998) as your RGB colour working space and deliver better separations to CMYK, especially in the cyan part of the gamut. Presently the setting implements the FOGRA27 CMYK profile.

Next you should have available, profiles for your own printers and for the press you are trying to simulate (now you have to decide if you really want FOGRA 27, you may prefer FOGRA 39 or even an American SWOP setting - you may need to take advice from your printer on this one). It is advisable to proof to a standard profile (ie a universal one) rather than a press profile which may not even be available. If you have neither, you can obtain profiles for your printer/paper combination from the manufacturers' websites or pay to have then made as bespoke profiles for your own set-up.

The latter course is the most accurate by some way. Your press may be, as yet, unspecified or may not have profiles. Either way, you should talk to somebody ahead of deciding, even if it is only to a more experienced colleague! There are arguments for not profiling a CMYK press, but to provide average conditions and, to this end, using the Photoshop SWOP or Euro Prepress defaults is OK for many jobs. Specifying a generic profile or even no profile for a CMYK job is less risky than not providing a profile with an RGB image. In the former you will still get close, in the latter anything can happen and frequently does! When choosing your CMYK settings you should decide between 'coated' and 'uncoated' paper stocks as this makes a huge difference. This magazine is printed on coated stock, weekly magazines are often printed on lower quality, coated stock and newspapers are printed on uncoated stock. The quality degrades in the same order.

• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 1
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 2
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 3
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 4
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 5
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 6
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 7
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 8
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing - proofing page 9
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 10
  
• Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt - proofing page 11
  

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