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Photoshop Tutorial 1 - Gamut and Color Issues when creating art for print.
In this tutorial, I will try to explain what "Gamut" actually is and why it is important when creating digital art to be printed. I am using Photoshop CS3 and I hope you find this tutorial helpful. Let me explain a few things before we start. RGB is the term describing an additive color model in which red, green, and blue are added together to create a wide range of colors. CMYK is often referred to as four color process using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. This is a subtractive color model in which the inks are normally printed onto a white background and therefore take away some of the brightness from the white. For example: 100% Red, 100% Green, and 100% Blue create White. 100% Cyan, 100% Magenta, 100% Yellow, and 100% Black create a rich deep black. Being that RGB creates a display using 3 colors and CMYK is using 4 colors, there is a large amount of colors that are "out of gamut", and should be watched out for. These colors may be in the RGB spectrum, but not in the CMYK. What happens is this, the RGB image may look correct until it gets printed using CMYK. The colors in RGB may look bright, vibrant or even neon, and when they are printed, they usually appear darker and dull. There is another type of printing process we will go into more detail with later call the Pantone Matching System. The PMS system uses a term called spot colors, and uses swatch books provided exclusively from Pantone. The display on your computer and the ink is specifically formulated to match precisely. There should be no color variation. Another thing we will get into more detail later is ICC Color profiles. The image to the right has a color triangle patter representing the colors that a typical computer monitor (CRT) can display. The gray areas are colors that fall outside the spectrum of RGB (Red, Green, Blue).
When printing, the colors outside of the viewable spectrum are very important. When dealing with CMYK printing and viewing on an RGB display, many things can happen. You can create an image exactly the way you want it only to get the end result back and it's not what you wanted at all. If you are a professional, this can make for some unhappy customers. Some printing companies request that all graphics you send them be in RGB format, but be using CMYK colors. Not only can this be confusing, but can also create obstacles. When editing your images in photoshop, it's always a good idea to convert your image to CMYK just to verify your colors are within range and will print as you see them on your screen. A good rule to follow is to avoid the extreme colors like neons, and other colors generally not found in nature. Some filters do not work when using CMYK, that's fine, you can convert it back to RGB using the following: Image > Mode > or CMYK if you need to convert it back. As a way to see if your color is out of Gamut, you can do turn the Gamut warning on by following these steps: View > Gamut Warning. There will be a check mark next to it if you have it activated. What that does is this, when you are working on an image and you have it in RGB mode you can view which colors will not print correctly as they will be grayed out in the image. It is what it says, simply a warning, the images will not print with the gray warning over top of them, but simply it is showing you it won't print the way you want it to. I hope that explains it a little better and be sure to check back soon, there will be more tutorials and tips posted on everything from different types of printing methods, color profiles, and easy ways to create great art from scratch. |
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