Re: color control strips - how do they work?
Re: color control strips - how do they work?
- Subject: Re: color control strips - how do they work?
- From: Steve Upton <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:13:53 -0700
At 12:02 PM -0500 10/24/08, email@hidden wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Previously writers have discussed the use of color control strips to
>monitor printing and proofing.
>Several sites like Hutch Color and Idealliance provide strips that can be
>used.
>
>I'd like to know more specifics about how these are used in a color managed
>workflow.
>
>For example - when is this control strip added?
>
>Is the control strip intended to go through the profile conversion process?
>So for example I can add it in my Photoshop document?
>
>Or, is it added later by some imposition software -or perhaps by the rip?
>So I should NOT add it to my document?
>
>By adding it at certain points in the workflow I would expect the color
>strip to get converted, but am not sure if this is desired or not.
There are a couple of ways to use them depending on what you are trying to monitor.
The vast majority of control strips on proofing systems are processed in the same manner as the document content. The idea is that, at least for that purpose, you don't really care what the underlying printing system is doing OR it's maximum gamut. You really just want to ensure that the proof you created is hitting your color aim within whatever your tolerances may be.
In some cases you may want to have the target route around the proofing transforms in the RIP so you can sample the entire gamut and "raw" behavior of the RIP. For RIPs that proof spot color as well as process, and the spot color is intended to be outside the gamut of the process color, you may want to use this technique.
When it comes to presses it's a different story. Pre-press color processing can vary quite a bit depending on the printing technology, the intended gamut, etc. In many cases, you want unprocessed color bars so you can monitor (and hopefully control) the press behavior. However, it's not uncommon to include color targets within the image area / processing stream in addition to those without. Then the workflow conversion process can be sampled in addition to the base-line printing behavior. Some systems like Apollo Systems' and others can sample the image content directly, effectively turning the entire sheet into a test target. (a million patches anyone?)
I guess you could say that the customer cares most about the colors that are converted in the same workflow as their imagery. The printer might care more about the colors in the space of the press that they have direct control over on press. We have users of our Maxwell system who are able to take advantage of both methods. Some targets can be in specific RGB spaces and sample the 'entire' workflow while others are in the press color space to aid in process control.
Regards,
Steve
________________________________________________________________________
o Steve Upton CHROMiX www.chromix.com
o (hueman) 866.CHROMiX
o email@hidden 206.985.6837
________________________________________________________________________
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