Re: matching paper and mat colors
Re: matching paper and mat colors
- Subject: Re: matching paper and mat colors
- From: Charles Cramer <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 21:11:54 -0800
From: "Michael Fox News Accout" <email@hidden>
>2) I have several papers I'm using. Some prints are done on the LightJet
>for clients who value "real" photographic paper. Some are done on Epson
>paper for people to value more longevity. These papers have different white
>points (including different L* values). So I want to match the different
>paper colors (within reason) to the same mat color. Yes, I suppose I could
>pick a different mat color, but I'd rather NOT change mat colors for the
>same image on different papers. (Call it artistic choice) :-)
Michael,
I make photographs that I mat with Bainbridge 8634 bright white board (and sometimes Rising White). I agree that there is a hue conflict when you mat your prints so that a border of paper white shows next to the mat board. I have not done measurements to compute the color differences, but rather just experimented. I now routinely add a yellow tint to my Epson print borders. My files are usually in Ektaspace or Adobe RGB colorspace, and values of around 255, 254, 243 seem to work well with the 9600/7600 printers. The resulting tint is very subtle, but lets the paper and mat work together more peacefully...
For Lightjet prints on Fuji Crystal Archive, the paper also seems bluish compared to the board, but correcting it is tougher. With the hysteresis of the lasers, getting such an incredibly subtle tint was impossible. Joe Holmes eventually figured out how to do this. He creates a pattern of alternating white/yellow patches that is then used to fill the border. This gets the lasers to give a very slight tint. Define a small group of these as a pattern in Photoshop for easy filling of the borders. The effect looks much more yellow on the monitor.
Here's what Joe Holmes says about this:
"The business of tinting borders with the pattern applies mainly to the LightJet and possibly to the Chromira. It's irrelevant on inkjet printers, which have no trouble printing consistent tints of any degree of paleness.
"I think in the end, I used a pattern of a 2 x 2 block of yellow pixels in each 4 x 4 block, adjusting the yellow of the block to obtain the right effect. I also experimented with single yellow pixels in each 4 x 4 block. Just vary the color of yellow to get the degree of tint needed, and don't forget to consider the fluorescence of the paper when choosing the degree and exact hue of the tint. Also don't forget that the fluorescing brightener of many papers is likely to fade and cease to do what it does relatively quickly (after only a few years on indoor display), making the faded areas look a few points more yellowish.
"And also consider that small areas of low density fade more quickly than even smaller areas of high density, though they may look the same. This is why inkjet prints have less of a problem with fading in the pastel colors than continuous tone printers do, other factors held equal (yes, some prints have been made as both contone and halftone in the same medium)."
Thanks Joe!
Charles Cramer
www.charlescramer.com
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