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Principles of Color Management
Principles of Color Management
In this resource, you will learn about the Principles of Color Management, including:
● RGB vs CMYK
● Understanding color variance
● Managing color in Adobe apps
RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) is the color space for digital images.
Digital devices create color when red, green, and blue are mixed
together. This is known as additive mixing.
Colors begin as pure black. Red, green, and blue light are added to
brighten it and create the colour required. Basically, a designer is
adjusting how light on the screen appears to create colors.
If red, green, and blue light mix together at an equal intensity, pure
white is created.
Any machine designed for printing creates its output by combining the
CMYK colors to different extents with ink. This is known as subtractive
mixing.
Essentially, colors begin as white, and each layer of ink reduces that
initial brightness to create the required color.
Therefore, when all colors are mixed together, they create a pure
black (the Key colour).
Identify which color space you would use for each of the following outputs:
1. Start Photoshop
2. Choose Edit > Color Settings
3. The Color Settings dialog box appears (see
right).
4. In the Settings menu, you can choose from a
series of preset settings.
5. Move the pointer over the menus in the
Color Settings dialog box to view more
information on these options.
6. Change the Settings to North America
Prepress 2 and observe the results.
Adobe provides pretested color setting options in the Settings menu at the top of the Color Settings dialog
box. These are the most useful settings:
● North America General Purpose 2 works well if you are exporting to both web and print formats.
● North America Prepress 2 works well if you are exporting to a printing press.
● North America Web/Internet works well if you are exporting to the Internet only.
● All images are converted to the sRGB IEC61966-2 working space. This is true for both web and general
purpose.
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