10 Ways To Be Sure Your Image's Bright Red Is Bright And Red
Graphic designers, photographers, publishers and PC users at large: they all depend on their digital kit being capable of rendering colors1 right. But the depressing truth is your colors will differ dependent on the output gadget. A monitor's red is not the same as an inkjet printer's red. Besides, what's "red"?
Here are 10 things you can do to make sure red is red, regardless of which device has to render it.
1. Buy a good monitor. OK, this is an open door, but by "good" i mean a monitor that you can calibrate. That rules out all the office monitors, the Apple Cinemas and leaves you with LaCie 300 range and Eizo ColorEdge products.
2. Get a good calibration and profiling application. Even if you can not afford an Eizo ColorEdge, buy Color Solutions ' basICColor Display. This software features a high-quality GretagMacbeth Display 2 colorimeter (called the "Squid 2" by Color Solutions), and has a feature called "software calibration". The latter calibrates any monitor by storing the calibration info (the Tone Reply Curve) in the video card's lookup tables. The only requirement: your video card should support it. ATI's Radeon range supports this.
3. Calibrate and create a color profile for your monitor once a month. Calibration isn't like profiling. Calibration means the color lookup tables in the monitor are put into a known state, while a profile only describes the monitor's perception of colors. With calibration you tell the monitor that it must render "pure red" by setting its color channels in a particular way. The profile you create will tell your image editing software, or graphical design application that pure red for this monitor means a specific mix of its color channels.
4. Buy an inkjet printer that has non-clogging printheads. Ideally, printheads shouldn't ever block. If they do, you can be assured your colors will come out horrible. If they don't, you can still have bad colors, but now at the least you can do something about it. Good printers are a little more expensive than the bottom-price inkjet printers you can purchase these days. Think of paying something similar to 200 USD at a minimum. For top-notch printers like the HP Photosmart Pro B9180, expect to pay 700 Bucks.
5. Drive your inkjet thru a Raster Image Processor. Many top of the range printers support a RIP, though not all RIPs are made equal. EFI makes good RIPs, as do the vendors that develop dearer RIPs for large format printers. EFI has a decent RIP, with support for ink limiting, black start setting, etc, for a very decent price. It's the EFI Designer Edition.
6. Profile your printer and use that profile with your RIP to get accurate colors, and economize on ink consumption. Through the profile settings, you can determine how much ink gets sprayed onto the page. For some paper types, you are able to save a lot of cash by setting ink limiting optimally for your printer.
7. Use established equipment such as X-Rite/GretagMacbeth or Barbieri to generate your CMYK printer profile. You need to make a profile for each paper not supported by your printer manufacturer. If you've got to use your printer in RGB mode, you can do with less expensive profiling systems. The best way to guarantee a top quality profile is created when you do not have the budget to get a system that costs about a thousand greenbacks, is to make an appeal to a remote service such as Thinck.com's.
8. Use an image revising application like Photoshop, which has a "softproof" feature, or if you want you can get some photo editing software reviews and find one that suits your price and level of experience. To softproof implies that you are going to be able to visually define an image's colors on-screen with enough precision to be confident the colors will match the printed output. Softproofing is rarely one on one, but can come very close, and is an alternative way of saving cash by saving on both wasted paper and ink.
8. When revising your image, set the grey balance first. Choose a neutral grey area in your image (if you took a photograph, you'll remember what was grey, and if you do not, there are nearly always objects that must be grey) and set this area as your neutral gray tone. In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you do it by selecting the Levels or Curves tool, choosing the grey eyedropper in the dialogue window, and clicking with this specific tool in the neutral area of your image.
9. If your image has a warm tone to it,. E.g. Because it was shot at dusk or with tungsten light and no flash, you can neutralize color casts slightly by choosing an area that isn't exactly neutral but more toward the warm tone of the image. As long as the area is greyish fundamentally, the image will adjust accordingly.
10. Take care with setting Saturation levels too high. If you boost saturation, you are also bossting color mistakes. You can enhance the saturation of your image when you are sure it is colour-accurate.
These and many more tips, tricks, and manuals, but also product reviews and detailed technology and strategy background detail is available on IT-Enquirer.com. IT-Enquirer is a web magazine targeted at creative professionals. It contains articles for noobs all the way up to specialists in the field.
Here are 10 things you can do to make sure red is red, regardless of which device has to render it.
1. Buy a good monitor. OK, this is an open door, but by "good" i mean a monitor that you can calibrate. That rules out all the office monitors, the Apple Cinemas and leaves you with LaCie 300 range and Eizo ColorEdge products.
2. Get a good calibration and profiling application. Even if you can not afford an Eizo ColorEdge, buy Color Solutions ' basICColor Display. This software features a high-quality GretagMacbeth Display 2 colorimeter (called the "Squid 2" by Color Solutions), and has a feature called "software calibration". The latter calibrates any monitor by storing the calibration info (the Tone Reply Curve) in the video card's lookup tables. The only requirement: your video card should support it. ATI's Radeon range supports this.
3. Calibrate and create a color profile for your monitor once a month. Calibration isn't like profiling. Calibration means the color lookup tables in the monitor are put into a known state, while a profile only describes the monitor's perception of colors. With calibration you tell the monitor that it must render "pure red" by setting its color channels in a particular way. The profile you create will tell your image editing software, or graphical design application that pure red for this monitor means a specific mix of its color channels.
4. Buy an inkjet printer that has non-clogging printheads. Ideally, printheads shouldn't ever block. If they do, you can be assured your colors will come out horrible. If they don't, you can still have bad colors, but now at the least you can do something about it. Good printers are a little more expensive than the bottom-price inkjet printers you can purchase these days. Think of paying something similar to 200 USD at a minimum. For top-notch printers like the HP Photosmart Pro B9180, expect to pay 700 Bucks.
5. Drive your inkjet thru a Raster Image Processor. Many top of the range printers support a RIP, though not all RIPs are made equal. EFI makes good RIPs, as do the vendors that develop dearer RIPs for large format printers. EFI has a decent RIP, with support for ink limiting, black start setting, etc, for a very decent price. It's the EFI Designer Edition.
6. Profile your printer and use that profile with your RIP to get accurate colors, and economize on ink consumption. Through the profile settings, you can determine how much ink gets sprayed onto the page. For some paper types, you are able to save a lot of cash by setting ink limiting optimally for your printer.
7. Use established equipment such as X-Rite/GretagMacbeth or Barbieri to generate your CMYK printer profile. You need to make a profile for each paper not supported by your printer manufacturer. If you've got to use your printer in RGB mode, you can do with less expensive profiling systems. The best way to guarantee a top quality profile is created when you do not have the budget to get a system that costs about a thousand greenbacks, is to make an appeal to a remote service such as Thinck.com's.
8. Use an image revising application like Photoshop, which has a "softproof" feature, or if you want you can get some photo editing software reviews and find one that suits your price and level of experience. To softproof implies that you are going to be able to visually define an image's colors on-screen with enough precision to be confident the colors will match the printed output. Softproofing is rarely one on one, but can come very close, and is an alternative way of saving cash by saving on both wasted paper and ink.
8. When revising your image, set the grey balance first. Choose a neutral grey area in your image (if you took a photograph, you'll remember what was grey, and if you do not, there are nearly always objects that must be grey) and set this area as your neutral gray tone. In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you do it by selecting the Levels or Curves tool, choosing the grey eyedropper in the dialogue window, and clicking with this specific tool in the neutral area of your image.
9. If your image has a warm tone to it,. E.g. Because it was shot at dusk or with tungsten light and no flash, you can neutralize color casts slightly by choosing an area that isn't exactly neutral but more toward the warm tone of the image. As long as the area is greyish fundamentally, the image will adjust accordingly.
10. Take care with setting Saturation levels too high. If you boost saturation, you are also bossting color mistakes. You can enhance the saturation of your image when you are sure it is colour-accurate.
These and many more tips, tricks, and manuals, but also product reviews and detailed technology and strategy background detail is available on IT-Enquirer.com. IT-Enquirer is a web magazine targeted at creative professionals. It contains articles for noobs all the way up to specialists in the field.
About the Author:
James Helmering is dedicated in helping you find a free photo editing software. His site will show you how you can download photo editing software straight away so that you can immediately start creating your pretty photo album to show to your buddies and family.
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