Hey all, I generate artwork from scratch in Illustrator then into Photoshop for color, then over to the printer. I was wondering if there is a guide or website or something that gives tips on printing colors. For instance, I know in CMYK, 0,0,0,100 for black is not good, but 40,40,40,100 is a nice deep black. Are there similar guidelines for making a nice blue or nice green?
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Colors in Photoshop
- Thread starter billsines
- Start date
Johnny Best
Active Member
If you design in Illustrator and are set up in RGB and save as .pdf you should get good colors printing it from Illustrator without going into Photoshop.
You'll have to forgive my Illy and PS ignorance. I'm a Corel guy for our lasers and a Vectric guy for the CNCs, the printer is still kinda new to me. One thing I like to do in PS is bring the artwork in and apply brushes and overlays to "grunge" down my work, which my understanding is easier to do with pixels than with vectors. I could be wrong though. That's why I bring in to PS.
Johnny Best
Active Member
Another CorelReefer.
Then keep your color settings the same in Photoshop as you have in Illustrator. Work in RGB with both.
Then keep your color settings the same in Photoshop as you have in Illustrator. Work in RGB with both.
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Depending on the project, what you can do is you can take the individual objects and copy them form Illustrator and than past them into Photoshop as smart objects. This might be a better solution as than you can use the masks and layers to have more control over what your doing.
But you can also take raster elements and import them into Illustrator and still do overlays as well. As far as using brushes in Illustrator, it's a little different but you can still do it.
Thanks for your replies guys. What I'm getting at is, what is a "good red"? or a "good blue"? Is there a website or resource that shows good CMYK combos that work well with the printer?
I know some of you keep mentioning RGB mode, but my manufacturer is saying to generate everything in CMYK and save as PDF. I have RIPped RGB photos that were JPG format, they turned out great. But most of my stuff is not photography.
I know some of you keep mentioning RGB mode, but my manufacturer is saying to generate everything in CMYK and save as PDF. I have RIPped RGB photos that were JPG format, they turned out great. But most of my stuff is not photography.
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
Start with this: Create a gray patch in Photoshop using 50, 40, 40, 0 along side any of your favorite artwork and print it while also printing your quality evaluation file.
Let us know what it looks like and also your color setting in Photoshop and Caldera.
You're asking for "recipe" color values but you need to know if your system is in tune first. (I suspect it is not.)
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
CMYK recipes do not translate well between one person to another. Think of it this way. You have a recipe for brownies. Every brownie recipe is pretty close in which ingredients are used and how long to cook. But what if you are using a wood stove to cook them? Or a convection oven? What about here in Denver?You need to adjust the temperature and timing to get the same results as someone at sea level? What if you like your brownies sweet but someone else likes them to be a little more bitter? Colors work the same way. There are tons of factors that go into achieving what good color means to you. Print head style, ink type, environment, which color space is being used in the design software, which color profile is being used in the RIP software, how well do you see color in general etc. All of these things play a role in creating color which is why color profiles are a thing. They try to take care of all of the factors so that you can print consistent color. So asking Fred how long he cooks his brownies doesn't do you any good because Fred uses a different kind of oven and likes his brownies more sweet than you do.
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
Think of it this way, you are tuning a piano. A440 is a general tuning standard. 50, 40, 40, 0 is a general recipe for middle gray of G7 calibration.
Baby steps to begin.
What say you, billsines. Gray print yet?
Patentagosse
New Member
Why not printing a color chart (in RGB & CMYK) and pin it on the wall. This way you can evaluate yourself what is a good red / green / blue to YOUR eyes. Than if you like this red's rendering, pick the color under the sample and assign it to your file. I have many here in my shop, printed with different profiles and on different medias (they have different white point)
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
As a tech I have looked down and thought, "Is that magenta or blood?" more times than I can count. Dang cheap sheet metal.