Color Management

You want your color files to print well, and we do too. Our digital printer (Konica Minolta C6000) has a range of colors (gamut) that it is capable of producing. Your monitor can show more colors than it can print. Some colors that you can see on your screen are simply not printable at all—on any printer. Our digital color printer is a production machine that will print “pleasing color”. It cannot produce high-end quality like an 8-color offset press, or even some home printers that print slowly on glossy photo paper. We calibrate our digital equipment daily and service it regularly.

How to apply color management:

We cannot provide software support for your specific software. We recommend learning more about color management settings from your software manufacturer. Also, be aware that changing default color management settings can result in unexpected changes of color in your file, make changes carefully. Our standard settings are:

There is no "absolute" way to manage color, there are many different approaches depending on your equipment, software and files. We recommend using one of the two methods below:

Method 1: Soft Proofing

• By looking at your file through our printer profile, you can roughly see how your file will print. Call us and we will email the appropriate profile for the paper that will be used for your job. Then follow the steps below:

• Calibrate your monitor:

• There are many methods to calibrate your monitor. This method is for Windows 7 on a PC. If you have a different operating system, the steps will vary. It is recommended to do this process in a darkened room.

• 1. In Windows 7, click Start>Devices and Printers. Right-click Monitor. Click Display Settings.

• 2. Click ‘what display settings should I choose’. ‘Help’ will pop up. Click ‘Calibrate Your Display’ (once on menu, and once on hyperlink under topic).

• 3. Click on ‘click to open Display Color Calibration’. Follow the wizard instructions. It’s kind of like going to the eye doctor, there are no right or wrong answers, just go by what you see.

• Load the printer profile:

• This method is for for Windows 7 on a PC. If you have a different operating system, the location will vary.

• 1. If you've called us to get a profile emailed to you, copy the printer profile to: Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color

  View your file through the profile:

• • In Acrobat: Go to Advanced>Print Production>Output Preview. Choose the profile that we provided to view your file.
  • In Photoshop: Go to View>Proof Setup>Custom. Under Device to Simulate: choose the profile that we provided to view your file. Choose whichever rendering intent that you prefer, however, let us know if it differs from Relative (our default).
  • In InDesign: Go to View>Proof Setup>Custom. Choose the profile that we provided, and click on “Simulate Black Ink”. Click OK. Click View>Proof Colors to view your file through the profile.

  Now that you can see your file under our printing conditions, it may look washed out or dull. This is because your monitor was giving you false information about how the file would print, on our equipment (or any equipment for that matter). Knowing how your file will print will enable you to make accurate color editing changes to your file.

  Method 2: Recalibrating Your Screen to Match Our Output

  An alternative method is to change your monitor color appearance to match the output of our printer. It is recommended to have a way to return your monitor to your standard color place when you are finished.

• 

  We can make a printout of a standard PDF test page that we can mail to you. (See illustration at right.) We will need to know what paper you will be printing on, and whether this is a text or cover file. In addition, we can email the same test page to you as a PDF file.

• Open the PDF test page file on your computer, and compare it to the test page printout. If they don’t match up, change your monitor colors until the printout matches the printed page. Now what you see on your monitor will look similar to how it will look when printed, enabling you to make more accurate color decisions when you edit your file.

• Design Tips for Best Digital Color

• You will get the richest and most accurate colors by keeping your images in RGB mode. We recommend using Adobe RGB for your working space, as it is capable of holding the most colors.

• • For best quality, avoid solid areas of color. If you must have large areas of solid color, use a CMYK build (rather than RGB percentages) to create it. Also, applying the 'Noise' filter in Photoshop to give the color a slight texture will reduce the banding effect that can sometimes occur in solid colors.

  • Do not use spot colors in your file, they can only be properly used on an offset printing press. If used for digital printing, a strong color shift will result.
    • Black type should be 100% black (K only—no C, M, or Y). Keep your type vector whenever possible, not screened
      • White type should be 100% white. Keep your type vector whenever possible.