| Graphic designers, photographers, publishers and | | | | 6. Profile your printer and use that profile with |
| computer users at large: they all rely on their | | | | your RIP to get accurate colours, and save |
| digital equipment being capable of rendering | | | | money on ink consumption. Through the profile |
| colours right. But the sad truth is your colours will | | | | settings, you can actually determine how much ink |
| differ depending on the output device. A monitor's | | | | gets sprayed onto the page. For some paper |
| red is not the same as an inkjet printer's red. | | | | types, you can save a lot of money by setting |
| Besides, what is "red"? | | | | ink limiting optimally for your printer. |
| Here are 10 things you can do to make sure red | | | | 7. Use established equipment such as X-Rite |
| is red, no matter which device has to render it. | | | | GretagMacbeth or Barbieri to generate your |
| 1. Buy a good monitor. OK, this is an open door, | | | | CMYK printer profile. You should create a profile |
| but by "good" i mean a monitor that you can | | | | for every paper not supported by your printer |
| calibrate. That rules out all the office monitors, the | | | | manufacturer. If you must use your printer in |
| Apple Cinemas and leaves you with LaCie 300 | | | | RGB mode, you can do with less expensive |
| range and Eizo ColorEdge products. | | | | profiling systems. The best way to ensure a good |
| 2. Buy a good calibration and profiling application. | | | | quality profile is made when you don't have the |
| Even if you can't afford an Eizo ColorEdge, buy | | | | budget to buy a system that costs a few |
| Color Solutions' basICColor Display. This software | | | | thousand dollars, is to appeal to a remote service |
| comes with a high-quality GretagMacbeth Display | | | | such as Thinck.com's. |
| 2 colorimeter (called the "Squid 2" by Color | | | | 8. Use an image editing application such as |
| Solutions), and has a feature called "software | | | | Photoshop, which has a "softproof" feature. To |
| calibration". The latter calibrates any monitor by | | | | softproof means that you'll be able to visually |
| storing the calibration data (the Tone Response | | | | determine an image's colours on-screen with |
| Curve) in the video card's lookup tables. The only | | | | enough accuracy to be confident the colours will |
| requirement: your video card should support it. | | | | match the printed output. Softproofing is never |
| ATI's Radeon range supports this. | | | | one-on-one, but can come very close, and is |
| 3. Calibrate and create a colour profile for your | | | | another way of saving money by saving on both |
| monitor once a month. Calibration is different | | | | wasted paper and ink. |
| from profiling. Calibration means the colour lookup | | | | 8. When editing your image, set the grey balance |
| tables in the monitor are put into a known state, | | | | first. Select a neutral grey area in your image (if |
| while a profile merely describes the monitor's | | | | you took a photo, you'll remember what was |
| perception of colours. With calibration you tell the | | | | grey, and if you don't, there are almost always |
| monitor that it must render "pure red" by setting | | | | objects that must be grey) and set this area as |
| its colour channels in a certain manner. The profile | | | | your neutral grey tone. In Photoshop or |
| you create will tell your image editing software, or | | | | Photoshop Elements, you do this by selecting the |
| graphic design application that pure red for this | | | | Levels or Curves tool, selecting the grey |
| monitor means a specific mixture of its colour | | | | eyedropper in the dialogue window, and clicking |
| channels. | | | | with this tool in the neutral area of your image. |
| 4. Buy an inkjet printer which has non-clogging | | | | 9. If your image has a warm tone to it, e.g. |
| printheads. Ideally, printheads should never clog. If | | | | because it was shot at dusk or with tungsten light |
| they do, you can rest assured your colours will | | | | and no flash, you can neutralize colour casts |
| come out awful. If they don't, you can still have | | | | somewhat by choosing an area that is not |
| bad colours, but now at least you can something | | | | exactly neutral but more towards the warm tone |
| about it. Good printers are a bit more expensive | | | | of the image. As long as the area is greyish by |
| than the bottom-price inkjet printers you can buy | | | | nature, the image will adjust accordingly. |
| these days. Think of paying something like 200 | | | | 10. Be careful with setting Saturation levels too |
| USD at a minimum. For top-notch printers like the | | | | high. If you boost saturation, you're also bossting |
| HP Photosmart Pro B9180, expect to pay 700 | | | | colour inaccuracies. You can boost the saturation |
| USD. | | | | of your image when you're sure it is |
| 5. Drive your inkjet through a Raster Image | | | | colour-accurate. |
| Processor. Many high-end printers support a RIP, | | | | These and many more tips, tricks, and tutorials, |
| but not all RIPs are created equal. EFI makes | | | | but also product reviews and in-depth technology |
| good RIPs, as do the vendors that develop more | | | | and methodology background information is |
| expensive RIPs for large format printers. EFI has | | | | available on IT-Enquirer is an online magazine |
| a decent RIP, with support for ink limiting, black | | | | aimed at creative professionals. It contains articles |
| start setting, etc, for a very decent price. It's the | | | | for beginners all the way up to experts in the |
| EFI Designer Edition. | | | | field. |