- Click the OK button three times in a row. You are exiting the Dot
Gain Curves, Custom CMYK, and Color Settings dialog boxes
and updating the definition of the Prints-R-Us CMYK profile. - Undo the last two operations. Before you can apply the new
color profile, you must first undo the effects of the previous one.
So press Ctrl+Alt+Z (or �-Option-Z) twice in a row to undo
the operations performed in Steps 11 and 7, respectively, first
reinstating CMYK color management and then restoring the
layered RGB image.
Be sure to press Ctrl+Alt+Z (�-Option-Z), and not Ctrl+Z (�-Z)! The
latter will undo all the work that you’ve achieved in the Color Settings
dialog box, everything from Step 12 through and including Step 18. If
you do accidentally press Ctrl+Z, press Ctrl+Z again to restore the color
settings, and then press Ctrl+Alt+Z twice. I know it’s weird, but that’s
how it works.- Again, choose the CMYK Color command. Choose
Image→Mode→CMYK Color and click the Flatten button
when asked to do so. The result doesn’t look all that differ-
ent from the CMYK image we created in Step 8. But now that
you’ve improved the accuracy of the CMYK color space, you
can trust what you see on the screen a bit more. - Save the improved CMYK image. Because you renamed the
image Joy of Color CMYK.tif back in Step 8, there’s no harm
in saving over it. Choose File→Save or press Ctrl+S (or �-S) to
update the file on disk. - Hand off the revised file to your commercial print house. This
time, the image prints much more accurately. In fact, as dem-
onstrated in Figure 12-21, it’s difficult to tell the CMYK output
from the CMYK image we see on the screen. The reds are still
a tad weaker than I’d like, but the output is close enough to
qualify as a successful conversion. (For proof beyond a shadow
of a doubt, compare Figure 12-25 to Figure 12-15, on page 487.)
Mind you, it’s not always possible to create such accurate color
conversions by winging it with Photoshop’s Dot Gain controls. But
given the uniformity of process inks and the fact that most domestic
presses are calibrated to relatively common standards, it’s worth a
try. And there’s nothing so empowering as successfully tweaking
Photoshop’s color settings so that your images output reliably to a
commercial printing press.
Figure 12-20.
442 Lesson 12: Print and Web Output