Which one should be used on digital output devices like color copiers, large format inkjets or on digital presses?

Basically, the rendering intent is the process of re-mapping colors that appear on the monitor to that of the output device. The 'intent' controls how this happens and specifically, what is done to the colors or data that is outside the target space. Different types of different things:

Absolute Colormetric - This color that falls outside the range are 'clipped'. What this means is that they are represented by the closest colors that are still within the target gamut. All in-gamut colors are not changed. Manytimes, this intent is used for SPOT COLOR. Watch out for the white point with this method.

Relative Colormetric - Solves the white point problem by mapping this value to the medium's white point. This intent is the best way to simulate offset printing when using an inkjet printer.

Perceptual Rendering - Basically, ALL of the colors are shifted to support the gamut of the output device. The theory is that they will all maintain their original orientaton to one another. Very good for inkjet printers and photographs.

The simplest way to get the most out of your camera, whether a new fangled digital breed or a traditional film-based box, is understanding the fundamentals of photography. Just as in anything else, knowledge is your most powerful bet in enhancing your digital or film photos.

I'm not talking about some advanced Photoshop hack. Just pure fundamentals. Textbook photography.

The following links are resources I like that explain the basics. When put in practice, photos become dramatically better. Knowledge - not the machine - make the best images. (Updates to this list will be ongoing)

1) Ken Rockwell - Fantastic information that's balanced, somewhat technical, and indepth. Site content is fresh and gets updated frequently. I especially liked his diatribe that 'it's not the camera'.

Here's the bottom line for two popular RGB color spaces:

sRGB - This is designed to simulate the average PC monitor. Good for images that will be shown on a computer or displayed on some particular device. Not good for print. Do not use for print. Adobe InDesign, depending on the version, defaults to sRGB. When this is the case, unexpected results will follow.

Adobe RGB (1998) - This is the preferred RGB space to be used for printing. Be sure that Photoshop AND InDesign are using this space.
It should be noted that all RGB colors should be converted to CMYK prior to printing. Use the wrong RGB space however, can have a big impact on this conversion process. Use of Adobe RGB (1998) helps to ensure the widest RGB gamut possible before conversion.

For a very brief read on the color spaces and printing, Color Space Fundamentals might be what you are looking for.

For the ambitious, there are some excellent Color Mangement discussions. One in particular, Color Management: Photoshop Color Settings, gives step-by-step review.

Capstrat is one of Raleigh's largest ad agencies and has published a series of small discussions on some interesting topics. I ran across Of Vector and Raster (Nov, 2004). It is an excellent read on key core concepts in desktop publishing. Indepth, but not overwhelming.

Even the smallest of companies can save time and money by working to understand the fundamentals. Not too gear-head, but just a little more than the basics.

It works wonders to help you get more stuff done - faster.

I set out to correct my photos, but needed to brush up some techniques for fixing. Found a great site that talks about the kinds of distortion: barrel, pincushion and tilt.

http://www.bythom.com/distortion.htm

If you browse this site, there is just a ton of excellent Nikon information to be found.

You'll never go wrong reviewed this page from time to time. Typography and Page Layout is an excellent short summary. Applying the simple principles it outlines immediately improved my work.

Read it from time to time. Good optical center explanation. Excellent look into contrast. It really gets you thinking.

The page is one of many at Typography-1st.com . Just a very well done resource for anyone in the graphic arts.

A few posts ago I had mentioned Nick Hoodge's wonderful InDesign Prepress Tips site. I used it to confirm the results I was gettting.

The problem with many two-color jobs - especially for printers using duplicator-class presses - is tight registration. On a newsletter, for instance, factors like 'tail whip', grain direction, and humidity can drive press operators nuts. Plus, many unseasoned graphic artists create designs that work in theory but are almost impossible to print on a printing press. Places where two colors touch each other show gaps, revealing the color of the paper underneath. It compromises the design and quality of any printed piece.

To address this, trapping is used. Basically, where colors touch, one color is widened so it prints over another color. This creates a 'margin of error' that helps offset many of the effects above. It makes it easier to get colors to touch; jobs look better.

In my instance, the printer I'm am working with has a nice Quickmaster, but whines if you push him or his abilities. REMEMBER: A printer will almost never tell you he'll struggle with a job. You're only indication will be when the job comes back and even the samples on top look shitty.

Anyways in pre-flighting the file handoff, I wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be any issues. An area needed to be trapped - so I used Adobe's In-Application trapping along with it's In-Rip Separations feature to print a postscript file.

Distill the postscript and open in Acrobat. Click 'Preview Overprints' and zoom it. Viola! A gauge on the trapping.

The PDF is a composite, but still retains its spot color information. Crackerjack can print the seps...

I'm beginning to work through the workflow of the portfolio.
For example, below would be sample entry in the Brochures category:

The EHR Roadshow Brochure
Promotional brochure for educational workshop. 8½ x 11, 4/4, trifold. Complete copywriting, production and prepress.

I'm thinking of a blog with mulitple catagories. These would be:

• Corporate Identity


• Tickets & Invitations


• Websites


• Newsletters/Publications


• Direct Mail


• Signage


• Promotional Products


• Database Applications


• Press Releases, White Papers

Nick Hodge, an Adobe Engineer of some sort, has published an excellent series of short articles related to InDesign, titled Adobe InDesign Prepress Techniques. He describes a variety of pdf-centric moves with the program that I felt warranted linking.

Immediately I've incorporated some of the moves. A recent flury of printing projects at work has had me sending a bunch of different jobs. One job - sent to Montana - utilized InDesign's transparency feature. At first, even our brand new color copier couldn't rip it. After following some of Hodge's tips, things were better.

Stumped, I followed the print-postscript-distill workflow and had better results. Interestingly, however, the gigantic printer completing the job hadn't known about the trick that allowed the job to print. They said they had a number of workarounds. (Namely assigning elements to different layers and playing out sequentially.) Although this gets there, who wants to sent the original application files? Not me...

I sent the link to a friend and we got to chatting about it. His take was that why should you complicate the layout file, just do it in photoshop and tiff export. First - speeed. Second - adaptability.

Layout files - when being developed - change. You constantly have the toggle between PS and your layout. Change. Save. Reimport. Your guessing where composites really need to be. Because of these two factors transparency has benefits.

It seems however, just like pdf, operator training in distilling the file the right way is the biggest hurdle. Hodge's series is a step in the right direction..

Read them and save yourself time and headaches.

Everybody always seems to guess on how to set up a folding job within a quality DTP pagelayout program. I often wonder how accurate they are.

Enter FOLDFactory, a online resource for such things. The price is a bit steep, but the creative possibilities are a real eye opener. The online tool is exceptionally implemented. Hat's off to Trish Witkowski!

Microsoft offers a series of free MS Office viewers and converters for people who don't own the software. They can be downloaded at this page.

But this can be taken one step further. Users with good bandwidth can get everything for free - suite and all - if they so desire. OpenOffice.org is a free productivity suite compatible with all major office suites.

Download it from http://www.openoffice.org

Vist pdf995.com and they're pretty upfront about what they provide:

"The pdf995 suite of products - Pdf995, PdfEdit995, and Signature995 - is a complete solution for your document publishing needs. It provides ease of use, flexibility in format, and industry-standard security- and all at no cost to you."

Just by looking at the information on their website quickly asssured me it was quality. This will certainly come in handy, and I will be linking to it from the download center.

Given all of the features, the price is right too. They explain:

"All three products are available as FREE downloads. The free versions display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software."

The only drawback is that its Windows only.

LINK: http://www.pdf995.com

Markzware makes quite a line of products for the graphic arts. Imagine the range of services that can be offered as a value-add in a graphic arts setting.

In any case, the provider and consumer wins. If providers can continually tune their workflows because of cleaner files that these services create, they can deliver better products more efficiently.

Everybody wins.

It can get pretty sophisticated. There's tools now available that are real-time and web-based.