Re: profiles and pantone colors
Re: profiles and pantone colors
- Subject: Re: profiles and pantone colors
- From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:17:43 -0700
In a message dated Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:25:38, Mark wrote:
> I've always been a little confused about how defining a Pantone color
> works with a profile. I'm talking about any application here
> (Photoshop, InDesign, Quark, Illustrator, etc).
>
> Do the profiles ignore things like spot colors or do all these
> programs have special "layers" that are untouched by the profile?
> (I'm not talking about converting a pantone to a 4c build)
>
> What confuses me is how I can have a profile attached to a document
> but then define a Pantone color that might be in or out of gamut but
> not have that colour touched by the profile.
>
> Can anyone clear up the confusion?
Mark,
Profiles for an inkjet printer (which I assume are the kind you are
referring to in this instance) describe the behavior of a device, which
means ALL the colors that this device is capable of producing using a
specific driver or specialized RIP.
These printable colors (printable by the inkjet device, that is) may not
encompass or match a few or many (depending on your inkjet printer) of those
specified under the Pantone color matching system. But those spot colors
that ARE encompassed by the printer's color space will be matched quite
closely. In order for that to happen, though, it's necessary to SEPARATE
spot colors from regular 4-color process colors inside a file.
A few RIPs in the market (EFI's Best ColorProof
<http://www.efi.com/products/colorproofXF/index.fhtml>, or ColorBurst's
X-Proof <http://www.colorburstrip.com/xproof.html>, or GMG's ColorProof 04
<http://www.gmgcolor.com/gmgcolor/234+M5d637b1e38d.0.html>, to name three)
will allow you to make press proofs that are accurate in the way they render
both the 4-color process colors in a file, as well as the Pantone colors
which can be matched inside the color space of a specific inkjet device.
They do this by requiring that the names for the spot colors in the file (in
this country, Pantone, usually) be spelled exactly the same as those on an
internal list: whenever the RIP intercepts a spot color whose name it
recognizes as valid, it "hijacks" it and prints it according to a list of
predetermined L*a*b values (separate from those used for 4-color process)
predetermined to produce the correct color on the proofer. This way, both
4-color process colors and spot colors which reside outside the gamut of the
4 color process being emulated (but are still within the inkjet printer's
color gamut) will come out looking accurate.
To my knowledge, without a professional RIP it's not possible to separate
spot colors from all other colors in a file for the purpose of printing an
accurate press proof -- though one can still produce reasonably good proofs
for 4-color process presses, if certain precautions are observed.
In any case, using a RIP (with its sophisticated controls on ink limits, its
linearization procedures, its time-saving multiple queues, etc.) is HIGHLY
recommended if one is aiming to produce consistently press-worthy proofs on
an inkjet device.
I hope this answers your questions.
Best regards.
--------------
Marco Ugolini
Mill Valley, CA
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