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Color Management for Corel
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doug5222
New Member
Anybody out there tried using what some call a "early-bound" color management workflow using Corel x5? When I got my hands on x5, it quickly became apparent that Corel made a drastic improvement in their color management scheme, which probably moved Draw from one of the worst design apps from a color management standpoint to one of the best.
I like to determine the printer, RIP and media a job will be printed with and importing the print profile from the RIP into x5 and making it my CMYK working color space and making CMYK the default color mode. That way, I can't design ANYTHING in x5 which can't be printed!
Also be sure to embed the profile in the file you save and tell the RIP to use the embedded profile as the input color space and the print profile. I really like being to specify a color in CMYK and know that it will be printed that way - the RIP can be set to do ink limiting and linearization only or can be set to do no color correction in which case the ink used in printing will be the CMYK specified in the file. I have gotten the best "rich black," vibrant reds, greens and blues I have ever been able to print on a Mutoh ValueJet by using this workflow and am in more precise control than if I blindly let the RIP do its thing. Just remember that if you set the RIP for no color management, you can easily oversaturate the print because no ink limiting is being done. Also, blends or gradients may not print well because of no linearization.
A typical workflow is to design in RGB, and unfortunately some design apps default to sRGB as the color working space - that limits the range of colors you can create to a fraction of the colors you can print on an inkjet. Also, if you do not embed the design working profile in the file and tell the RIP to use it, the RIP may map the file into a different RGB working space than the design app used - causing color transformations. Then the RIP will do a second color transformation when it maps the image from the input color space to the printing color space. Now, what prints can be quite different from what was designed.
Upgrading to x5 gets you a free copy of David's article on x5 color management. Try it out!
Just my $.02 worth...
I like to determine the printer, RIP and media a job will be printed with and importing the print profile from the RIP into x5 and making it my CMYK working color space and making CMYK the default color mode. That way, I can't design ANYTHING in x5 which can't be printed!
Also be sure to embed the profile in the file you save and tell the RIP to use the embedded profile as the input color space and the print profile. I really like being to specify a color in CMYK and know that it will be printed that way - the RIP can be set to do ink limiting and linearization only or can be set to do no color correction in which case the ink used in printing will be the CMYK specified in the file. I have gotten the best "rich black," vibrant reds, greens and blues I have ever been able to print on a Mutoh ValueJet by using this workflow and am in more precise control than if I blindly let the RIP do its thing. Just remember that if you set the RIP for no color management, you can easily oversaturate the print because no ink limiting is being done. Also, blends or gradients may not print well because of no linearization.
A typical workflow is to design in RGB, and unfortunately some design apps default to sRGB as the color working space - that limits the range of colors you can create to a fraction of the colors you can print on an inkjet. Also, if you do not embed the design working profile in the file and tell the RIP to use it, the RIP may map the file into a different RGB working space than the design app used - causing color transformations. Then the RIP will do a second color transformation when it maps the image from the input color space to the printing color space. Now, what prints can be quite different from what was designed.
Upgrading to x5 gets you a free copy of David's article on x5 color management. Try it out!
Just my $.02 worth...