Everything in color

Everything seems to be ideally achieved: the customer's data is put into production as scheduled, all the pages have been completed, and the selected fonts are not lacking-in short, the task is completed satisfactorily. But after I printed it, I suddenly realized that the effect was very different. The color of the original was much brighter. Even when I pre-checked on the display, everything I saw was much better than printed.

Experts believe that "Color Management" can avoid these problems. But what is the real meaning of this term? Simply put, color management includes controlling color to be reproduced accurately, stably, and consistently, and its results can be predicted. The purpose is to make the final product as close to the original as possible. This topic may be a cliché for some people, but it is one of the most popular topics in professional seminars, industry symposia, and lectures, that is, because of the content of this theme and its continuous uncertainty.

In publications, a color image usually goes through a series of digital workflows. This workflow begins with a scanner or digital camera capturing the image, reproducing the image on the display screen, proofing by the digital proofing equipment, and finally preparing for the actual printing. No problems generally occur during this process, but there is one thing to note: colors are not easily captured and are more difficult to control accurately.

Color is not a simple physical phenomenon, but a complex visual experience affected by light, including the reflective nature of the surface illuminated by light, and slightly different psychological factors that affect everyone's color perception. It is wrong to think that the rainbow contains all colors. Because color is not a single-plane unity, it is far from simple to assign a wavelength to each color. In fact, we can't see the true colors at all. Color is only based on the synthesis of signals received by pyramidal cells on our retina in the brain.

Some systems have been tried to describe colors. Usually the color space we mentioned is some multi-dimensional coordinate system, like the widely used CIE color coordinate system, using three coordinate axes of red-green, yellow-blue and black-white. But no color space defined by any manufacturer can simply correspond to the color space defined by another manufacturer.

Different devices also reproduce colors differently, and even cannot record and describe the same color the same. For example, scanners and display screens use the color space to integrate the three primary colors of red, green, and blue to reproduce various tones; on the other hand, the proofer and printing machine integrate the CMYK color space to create colors. A typical prepress system can contain a set of different devices from different manufacturers, which complicates the color management process.

In the past few years, the typical prepress part has adopted more or less self-contained equipment systems, and its parts can work closely to ensure complete adaptability. But now the digital devices used by pre-press operating systems are mostly made by different manufacturers, which also brings problems to color management. At present, it is often found that some pre-press commercial equipment from different manufacturers form a production line, such as: using Heidelberg, Kodak or Itek scanners, or using Epson, Ricoh, Nikon digital cameras for input, or directly using customers to An image generated by a variety of software and hardware.

Problems caused by mismatch
When switching from one color space to another in the workflow, the problem of color management will be more serious. For example, the scanner performs input scanning in RGB mode and outputs in CMYK mode. Such things happen every day in printing houses.

Although different devices use different color spaces to have a certain coverage area, it is still difficult to match them completely. Even two devices that also use the RGB color space have very different results. Paper and other substrates also affect color reproduction. These factors must also be taken into account in color management.

The task of color management
The purpose of color management is to compensate for the color distortion caused by the input and output devices, ensure that the color data is converted in a repeatable manner, and meet the professional requirements, and ultimately establish a color expression that does not vary from device to device. This is mainly achieved by the "device color calibration" method.

In theory, the color profile should be based on widely accepted standards. The International Color Consortium has formulated such a color space standard ICC-Profile and the necessary color management module (Color Management Module) for the modular software and hardware environment. It uses these standard files to control the color when input or output. Convert to a color space that is not affected by the device.

Apple ’s MacOS operating system fully supports the ColorSync color management system. ColorSync is based on technology developed by Linotype-Hell (now Heidelberg Prepress) and handles color conversion. This ColorSync software will coordinate between the operating system, applications, ICC-Profile and CMM, and can even convert between different module systems that use different color conversion methods. Microsoft obtained permission from Heidelberg's prepress to use ICM technology in the Windows operating system.

The truth about color management
When an image is scanned or taken with a digital camera, the result must be checked on the monitor. This is the first pass. Both devices need to be calibrated and a calibration curve is calculated to compensate for the difference. To calibrate the input device, a reference file is required, usually a color slide with a color block test strip. This test strip should be consistent with the IT8 standard for all device color description files. You can use a spectrophotometer to measure the original, and of course you can use the measured color value file to omit this step. The second step is to measure an actual scanned image with a spectrophotometer, compare the result with the previously stored reference data, and establish a set of difference values. This is the profile supported by the corresponding software, which can be used to convert the scanned data into a color space that does not vary from device to device. The same method is also used to calibrate the display screen, proofer, and final output device.

Uncertainty introduced by printing press
Naturally, the final output is the final inspection of color management. The standard color control strip has been designed as the color calibration of the printing press, so the color reproduction quality of the printed matter can be checked on the printed sheet. However, due to the inherent limitations of the offset printing process and the large number of variables that need to be maintained, considerable instability is added to this process, and Profile can only calibrate a device under specific data settings, so it remains It is very important that the printing conditions remain unchanged. Ink, ink fountain settings, paper and even temperature and humidity will affect the print quality.

Outlook
In fact, due to weaknesses in the process, each device requires different profiles and processing schemes, and color management cannot often achieve the desired results. As long as there is a link in the production process that is not properly calibrated, or the wrong or outdated profile is used, the entire process is damaged. Manufacturers are also aware of these issues and have begun to propose efficient color management solutions, including tools with powerful calibration functions designed for many devices.

In fact, color management technology has not been widely used. Some people are hesitant because of this complicated thing. The numerous tools and systems on the market not only fail to help potential users find directions, but make them more confused. What's more, many explanations about "color management" are arbitrarily swayed, and various statements only narrowly talk about certain aspects, rather than describing this technology as a whole. Moreover, in essence, the fundamental problem of color is completely a subjective phenomenon, which makes it difficult to control.

In any case, it is not too far away to adopt color management to ensure the faithful reproduction of high-quality print colors. In fact, as explained in this article, there is an urgent need to move color management forward.

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