The Science of Color
> KELBY ONE.COM
[ 53 ]If you know your device has a dedicated black ink, versus
a mixture of all inks to produce black, then check the
Simulate Black Ink box for accurate proofing.
Here’s an example of a print profile for my local Costco
photo print center (it even has the address for the photo
center). Notice in the name that it has “Gls” at the end.
This profile isn’t only for their printer, but it’s a profile for
their printer based on using glossy paper. The other profile
in the list has “Lus” for luster/matte paper.
EDITING FOR OUTPUT
This could be an entire article in itself but it wouldn’t be fair
if we didn’t include at least some advice on how to edit for
your proof setup. First and foremost, use Gamut Warning.
That gray overlay is a live preview of colors that are out of
gamut for your device. While you have this turned on, you
can edit parts of your image, such as specific colors, and
you’ll see the gray overlay change as you edit. Most of the
time the issue is a color that’s too heavily saturated, more so
than the hue itself.
For example, if you have a blue sky that’s out of gamut,
use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to target the Blue hue
of your sky and make some adjustments. The Gamut Warn-
ing gray overlay will shift as you make changes, indicating
when the sky is within the printable range of your device.
Try shifting the Hue, Saturation, or Brightness, and you’ll be
able to fix most of your issues. Also try using Levels or Curves
to adjust contrast and see how that affects colors that are
out of gamut. All of these things put you in the driver’s seat
so you can control the choices for your final output. When
there are only a few indicators of gamut warnings left, that’s
a good time to print.
Once you’ve edited your Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB
file to work in the proof environment for your target output
device, remember to flatten your file and save it as a copy.
Use the Edit>Convert to Profile feature mentioned earlier
and convert it to the profile of your output device. You
should see little to no changes at all! Now send this version
of your file to your printer.Congratulations! You’re now managing color for output
to your target devices or media! Please keep in mind that
for printers, the paper choice plays a big factor in ink den-
sity and color vibrance, which will affect your final output.
Good luck and happy color managing. nOnce you’ve chosen your device profile for the Proof
Setup, anytime you use Gamut Warning, the gray overlay
of pixels that are out of gamut will be relevant to that
printer profile. When you choose Proof Colors, it’s a simu-
lated preview of your colors for that device.
Now you can check whether or not your image colors
can be produced on your target output device. If you have
colors that are out of gamut, you need to edit your file for
that device. Don’t let the printer make those changes for
you because you’ll never be sure of how much the printer
will convert the file. If you want to control your print envi-
ronment, you need to edit your file so that all the pixels are
producible in gamut.