ORDERING
|
| COLOR & PRINT QUALITY |
|
 |
|
|
|
Monitor Calibration
The main purpose of calibrating is to set white and black points, contrast, brightness, and gamma (midtone density).
Since monitors differ from one to the next (even same brand and models), no two will respond in exactly the same way. The older your monitor is, the more likely it will lessen in both brightness and clarity. For color critical work, most monitors are dependable up to only two years. Some are better. Some are worse. You will have to be the judge. Calibrating your monitor is very important for color critical work. Do this a minimum of once a week. Even high-end soft proof workstations require frequent recalibrations.
You will need software to calibrate your monitor. Adobe Gamma (supplied with the Windows version of Photoshop) and Monitor Calibrator (Mac OS only) are simple to use. Both programs have "wizards" that can guide you, step by step, through the process. There are also a variety of more sophisticated software that can be purchased from third party developers, as well as high-end software that is included with the purchase of a monitor that is specifically designed for color critical applications.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Calibrating a CRT Monitor
• Make sure it's been on and in use for at least an hour so it's reached its stable operating temperature.
• Set the display to at least 24-bit true color (millions of colors).
• Set the resolution, refresh rate, and the geometry settings.
• If you change any of these settings after calibration you must calibrate again.
• Clean the screen before you calibrate, especially if you are using a hardware device to calibrate. Use a mild detergent or a cleaning product specifically for monitors. Do not use regular glass cleaners, they can damage antiglare coatings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monitor Types (CRT vs. LCD)
CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors are heavier, larger and consume more electricity than the lighter and thinner LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitors. LCDs are around two times brighter than CRTs. Image files displayed on LCDs typically print darker than they appear on screen. For this reason, LCDs are not recommended for preparing print ready image files (although new technologies will eventually change that). Sometimes, LCDs can be adjusted within acceptable tolerances.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Color Spaces (Lab, RGB, and CMYK)
A color space is a range of colors in the visible spectrum. Lab, RGB, and CMYK are all color spaces. Lab is what people see. RGB is the space used by cameras, scanners and color monitors. CMYK is what most printers lay on paper. Lab is the largest color space, and CMYK is the smallest of these three. The colors in one color space that are not in another color space are called "out of gamut".
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lighting Conditions
Lighting conditions are important when preparing digital image files. Conditions will affect your perception of brightness, contrast and color. There are two conditions to consider.
Ambient lighting, while viewing a digital image file on screen, needs to be considered. A bright room tends to yield darker than expected files, especially when printed. A dark room does the opposite. Somewhere in between should suffice. In general, it is recommended that a room be darker than lighter, but also consistent from morning through night.
Viewing hard copies, such as photographs, transparencies, and color proofs, should be done with the aid of 5000 degree Kelvin, color-correct light, a standard of the printing industry. Such lighting is similar to daylight, though not as bright, and allows you to accurately see the full visible spectrum of colors. Incandescent lighting, which is warm, will not illuminate the cooler colors (i.e. baby blues, bright greens, cool yellows, etc.) at the blue/violet end of the visible spectrum. Cooler fluorescent lights will diffuse the warmer colors (i.e. reds, oranges, warmer yellows, etc.) at the red end of the visible spectrum.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Resolution — file vs. print
Digital file resolutions and printing resolutions are not the same. A digital file's resolution is determined by pixels per inch (ppi). A print's resolution is measured by dots per inch (dpi). Higher resolutions usually translate to better quality, but also tend to increase the size (MegaBytes) of a file and the time it takes to output.
For example, a 4 inch by 4 inch CMYK file, at a digital resolution of 72 ppi (.324 MBs in size), and output at a printing resolution of 360 x 360 dpi may only take about 30 seconds to output. But the same CMYK file, at a digital resolution of 355 ppi (7.69 MBs in size), and output at a printing resolution of 2880 x 1440 dpi, might take as long as 5 minutes to output.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adobe Photoshop version 6 or later
Amongst tool improvements, web usage, and many other reasons, version 6 allowed for huge color management advantages yet to be seen in any other image editing applications. For that reason alone, upgrade now. Versions 7 and CS offer still more advantages than version 6.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exact Color Match?
This depends upon your expectations. In general, however, the answer is "no". This is also covered in our terms & conditions, but the reason is mostly due to limitations in the printing process. All CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) printing processes reproduce colors in a smaller color space than the original's color space (original color space is often RGB). Even though Design Majik's inks represent a slightly larger color space than the industry norm, it remains a smaller color space than RGB, and a lot smaller than the visible color spectrum.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Color You're Expecting
Send us a color sample of what you're expecting. We'll compare it to your file. Then we'll let you know if your file will print similarly or not. |
|
|
|
|
|
Gang Printing
Gang Printing is the running of several jobs on the same press sheet, then cutting into the individual jobs after printing. Since each job requires a certain amount of ink, one job might be affected by another job next to it. At Design Majik, we have developed a unique process that ensures your job will get the ink it needs, to print as it should.
The accuracy of your color reproduction is guaranteed to be within 85-90% of your digital image file as viewed from Design Majik's calibrated color displays.
|
|
|