Apple

Henk wrote:

I used to be a printer on sheet fed and web..
And after a few years I was a prepress guy.
Color, CMS, GCR, UCR, fonts, TT, OT, knock outs.
The whole transformation of our business from
hot-metal via photocomp to PostScript and now PDF.
From letterpress, via gravure to offset.
Via CMYK scanners and RGB scanners to digital color.
From No Control via System Brunner to ISO 12647-2.
Yes, now a consultant because (other) pre-press guys, printers,
designers and digital photographers want to get
more information and we all have to optimize the process
from digital color to print and press.
So, at least one of these pre-press people is on this list!
Henk

I'm another one! I can't confess to having worked a press (apart from very messy attempts in College!) but spent many years in prepress before even more years at Crosfield helping prepress and printers around the world achieve good colour, in the days long before the ICC. Like Henk, GCR, UCR and TAC are second nature. For the last ten years I have been a Colour Management Consultant.

I believe that in general it is better to let the prepress people separate to CMYK as they may, (just may!) have information about the printing conditions (sheet, web offset, coated, uncoated, even gravure or flexo!!). In the real world such as producing images for publications, there won't be just one very knowledgeable photographer, equipped with a decent Mac with a properly calibrated and profiled monitor, but hundreds of "photographers" with a wide variety of $100 cameras and "Dull" $399 PCs.

Ad Agencies also invariably do extensive retouching. Should this be in CMYK?

Perhaps we should be getting ALL involved in the process to THINK about it and ASK the questions. Just as many photographers don't understand print, many prepress people don't understand ICC Colour Management. Some don't understand printing! There has always been a bit of a divide. .Many in the industry today have had no formal technical education. Many people unfortunately don't have the time or inclination to acquire knowledge. If photographers or prepress people need training or consultancy, there are plenty of us out there with the skills! Printers can also learn how to print to ISO-12647.

Phil Cruse

Graphic Quality Consultancy

http://www.colourphil.co.uk