4.11 Applying Colour Management in the Adobe Creative and Kodak Prinergy Softwar
4.11 Applying Colour Management in the Adobe Creative and Kodak Prinergy Software
Alan Martin
Colour management comes into play at two primary points in the print production workflow: during file creation with authoring tools like the Adobe Creative applications (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), and then when the file is processed for output with a workflow software program such as Kodak Prinergy. Let’s examine the details in these most widely used software tools to provide concrete examples.
Colour Set-up in the Adobe Creative Applications
The primary tool for colour management in the Adobe products is the Color Settings dialog under the Edit menu. Fortunately, these settings can be shared across all of the Adobe applications to coordinate a consistent delivery of colour strategy. Define your settings in Photoshop, as this is the application with the largest number of options, to guarantee that all possible options have been set to your choices.
Launch Photoshop and, from the Edit menu, choose Color Settings. There are three main sections to the dialog window: Working Spaces, Color Management Policies, and Conversion Options. Change the Settings option above the Working Spaces panel to North American Prepress 2. This applies a set of defaults that are optimal for a print production workflow.
Working Spaces is Adobe’s name for default profiles. These are the profiles that will be used if no other information is available. If you open a file that is untagged (the terminology for a document that has no profile attached to it), the profile listed for the colour space matching the file will be assumed and used as long as the file is open. It will not persist with the file once the file is closed. If you create a new file in the application, the profile listed will be assigned and the profile reference will move forward with the file.
Let’s review and clarify the terminology associated with describing the status of a colour profile relative to a particular document or file. A file that has a profile is referred to as tagged while one without profile is untagged. A tagged document can have one of two relationships with its colour profile. The colour profile can be embedded or assigned. An embedded profile is actually written into the file content. This increases the file size, but guarantees that the desired profile will be available. For an assigned profile, only a reference to the profile is contained in the document. File size is reduced, but access to the profile depends on the application and environment processing the object. You can think of an assumed profile as a temporary assignment that will only last as long as the file is open.
For Working Spaces options, the RGB default of Adobe RGB (1998) that comes with the North American Prepress 2 setting is a perceptually even RGB space, which makes it better for editing and a good choice. The CMYK field is where you should choose a profile specific to the final output device if it is known. The SW