Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
that the second biggest problem is the less than stellar gamut mapping of
most printer profiles.
People who try to use color management run into a never-ending
variety of interface concepts in software and constantly shifting jargon,
as well as puzzling color shifts and other confounding software behav-
iors that together obscure the underlying functions of color management
and often frustrate their desires for getting great looking images through-
out the process with as little needless work as possible. That's why users
need a firm grounding in the underlying principles and mechanisms, so
they can see through the jungle of obstacles that get thrown into their
path and avoid frustrating impediments to printed results that really
satisfy.
The good news is that most of what we really needed from our engi-
neering friends has been done, at least once, and that the not-so-small
miracle of color matching can be made to work extremely well if one
chooses one's approach, profiles, and software well. Over time, I expect
slow improvements in printer profile gamut mapping, as more engineers
learn to do it better, a tendency for jargon and interfaces to become more
standardized, and further proliferation of good instructional materials and
workshops.
I've been using a fully ICC-profile based color management system
since 1996, although I did my last topic,
Canyons of the Colorado
, early that
year with a system cobbled together mostly from elements of the pre-
ICC ways because a great printing press profile (CMYK conversion if
you will) was impossible at the time. The first output profiles that I
relied on were Lightjet profiles for printing with red, green, and blue
lasers on photographic papers. The added complexities of CMYK con-
version make top-notch profiles for printing presses inherently more dif-
ficult to achieve than for photographic printers that accept RGB image
data, but I have chosen ICC methods for offset lithographic output as well
ever since late 1996, and have been able to achieve excellent results on
press since then, at least part of the time. I was very happy with
Canyons
of the Colorado
, but the next time I make a topic of my photographs the
color will improve quite a bit, partly because my color management
works better and partly because my skill with imaging has improved in
other ways.
In any case, getting what you want from a print run is much trickier
than from a photographic printer such as an ink-jet, and making a top-
notch topic is still a considerable achievement. Getting images to look
right in a magazine is less likely because the overhead to get serious
control is usually out of reach and the press will be less tightly controlled.
Most of the people who produce magazines don't understand color man-
agement very well, if at all, in my experience, and one has to get cre-
ative and lucky to be really happy with the results. Either that or just
accept that you're unlikely to see a really gorgeous result on the page.
Lithography works a whole lot better than it used to, and over time,
