Digital Print Workshop [1]

Notes from the session

These sessions focus on preparing digital artwork for printed applications.

Obviously, the colour mode is visible in the image window tab.
RGB refers to the varying amounts of red, green and blue light that create the illusion of varied colours on the screen.
CYMK refers to the inks, cyan, magenta and key which are combined through a mechanised printing process to create the illusion of varied colours.

Each colour mode is composed of a limited palette.
It is possible to work within perceivable colours on screen (RGB), that are not reproducible in print (CYMK).

Working in CYMK will limit the use of some features, thus it is better to primarily work in RGB

The Gamut Warning will highlight pixels that are non-printable.

Reducing the saturation will always improve the printers' ability to reproduce the on screen colours.

To be more selective in regards to saturation effects, make use of the magic wand tool or masks.

The colour range tool allows for more advanced and precise selection of particular colours.

Selecting the option 'Out of Gamut' will therefore select the colours that are non printable, and allow for further editing.

When the 'Out of Gamut' selection has been made, layer masks will apply accordingly, using the selection as the mask.

Selecting 'Proof Colours' (or Command + Y) will preview the image as it will appear printed in CYMK.

Apparently, the standard file specifications Matt encounters are:

300ppi / dpi
CMYK
Actual Size
.jpeg (.tif or .psd)


Swatches may be edited and saved for later use.

When selecting a colour, a warning will appear if a colour is out of Gamut, clicking said warning will adjust the selection within Gamut.