Web and Development

Graphic designers
photographers
publishers and computer users at large: they all rely on their digital equipment being capable of rendering colours right. But the sad truth is your colours will differ depending on the output device. A monitor's red is not the same as an inkjet printer's red. Besides
what is "red"?

Here are 10 things you can do to make sure red is red
no matter which device has to render it.

1
Buy a good monitor. OK
this is an open door
but by "good" i mean a monitor that you can calibrate. That rules out all the office monitors
the Apple Cinemas and leaves you with LaCie 300 range and Eizo ColorEdge products.

2
Buy a good calibration and profiling application. Even if you can't afford an Eizo ColorEdge
buy Color Solutions' basICColor Display. This software comes with a high-quality GretagMacbeth Display 2 colorimeter (called the "Squid 2" by Color Solutions)
and has a feature called "software calibration". The latter calibrates any monitor by storing the calibration data (the Tone Response Curve) in the video card's lookup tables. The only requirement: your video card should support it. ATI's Radeon range supports this.

3
Calibrate and create a colour profile for your monitor once a month. Calibration is different from profiling. Calibration means the colour lookup tables in the monitor are put into a known state
while a profile merely describes the monitor's perception of colours. With calibration you tell the monitor that it must render "pure red" by setting its colour channels in a certain manner. The profile you create will tell your image editing software
or graphic design application that pure red for this monitor means a specific mixture of its colour channels.

4
Buy an inkjet printer which has non-clogging printheads. Ideally
printheads should never clog. If they do
you can rest assured your colours will come out awful. If they don't
you can still have bad colours
but now at least you can something about it. Good printers are a bit more expensive than the bottom-price inkjet printers you can buy these days. Think of paying something like 200 USD at a minimum. For top-notch printers like the HP Photosmart Pro B9180
expect to pay 700 USD.

5
Drive your inkjet through a Raster Image Processor. Many high-end printers support a RIP
but not all RIPs are created equal. EFI makes good RIPs
as do the vendors that develop more expensive RIPs for large format printers. EFI has a decent RIP
with support for ink limiting
black start setting
etc
for a very decent price. It's the EFI Designer Edition.

6
Profile your printer and use that profile with your RIP to get accurate colours
and save money on ink consumption. Through the profile settings
you can actually determine how much ink gets sprayed onto the page. For some paper types
you can save a lot of money by setting ink limiting optimally for your printer.

7
Use established equipment such as X-Rite/GretagMacbeth or Barbieri to generate your CMYK printer profile. You should create a profile for every paper not supported by your printer manufacturer. If you must use your printer in RGB mode
you can do with less expensive profiling systems. The best way to ensure a good quality profile is made when you don't have the budget to buy a system that costs a few thousand dollars
is to appeal to a remote service such as Thinck.com's.

8
Use an image editing application such as Photoshop
which has a "softproof" feature. To softproof means that you'll be able to visually determine an image's colours on-screen with enough accuracy to be confident the colours will match the printed output. Softproofing is never one-on-one
but can come very close
and is another way of saving money by saving on both wasted paper and ink.

8
When editing your image
set the grey balance first. Select a neutral grey area in your image (if you took a photo
you'll remember what was grey
and if you don't
there are almost always objects that must be grey) and set this area as your neutral grey tone. In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
you do this by selecting the Levels or Curves tool
selecting the grey eyedropper in the dialogue window
and clicking with this tool in the neutral area of your image.

9
If your image has a warm tone to it
e.g. because it was shot at dusk or with tungsten light and no flash
you can neutralize colour casts somewhat by choosing an area that is not exactly neutral but more towards the warm tone of the image. As long as the area is greyish by nature
the image will adjust accordingly.

10
Be careful with setting Saturation levels too high. If you boost saturation
you're also bossting colour inaccuracies. You can boost the saturation of your image when you're sure it is colour-accurate.

These and many more tips
tricks
and tutorials
but also product reviews and in-depth technology and methodology background information is available on IT-Enquirer.com. IT-Enquirer is an online magazine aimed at creative professionals. It contains articles for beginners all the way up to experts in the field.