Colour question

[Daniel Doornbos]

Dear Lester,

When you send a PDF file to an outside firm for printing, such as I
suggested for Edwin's project, your choice of printer driver can make a
big difference in output quality. The Adobe PDF driver is good when your
PDF is the final deliverable in the project, meaning it will be read
online or the user prints it.

But if your PDF is the means of transmitting your work for film or a
high-end digital printing press, the Adobe PDF driver may not give the
best results. I learned that lesson through hard experience. That is why
I urged Edwin to talk with his printing company before outputting his
files. They will know the best way to prepare his files for their
process.

Printer drivers do not use CMYK color. The driver is required by the
Windows OS in order to have a target to which you can print. The
printer, whether inkjet or laser, is the device that applies the CMYK
color.

CMYK is a subtractive color model, based on color as reflected from a
surface, such as a printed page. RGB is an additive color model, based
on color coming from a light source, such as your computer screen.

RGB graphics are designed for display on computer screens and
projectors. That is the reason the Windows GDI uses RGB. If you send RGB
graphics to the printer, the printer (or, in the case of inkjets, the
software) must interpret and convert the data to CMYK, because those are
the colors the printer can put onto the paper.

In most cases, the members of this forum probably are not involved with
offset or digital printing of their projects. As somebody who has worked
in that area, I will share my experience and let the readers decide for
themselves.

Daniel Doornbos
Technical Writer
Promise Technology, Inc.
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+danield=promise.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+danield=promise.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
Behalf Of Lester C. Smalley
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 1:55 PM
To: framers at frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Colour question


As has been repeated in this forum, time and time again, if you are
'printing' to PDF you should be using the Acrobat Distiller print
driver, and not the drivers for any specific real or generic device.
This should show up in your system (Windows) as the "Adobe PDF" or
"Acrobat Distiller" (if you have an older version of Acrobat) printer.

While you may not have any immediate problems, there is the strong
possibility that the resulting PDF will not be compatible for all
devices, or suffer from other problems which will rear their ugly heads
at the most inopportune times such as 15 minutes before a critical
deadline.....

And I am not convinced that the printer drivers in Windows use CMYK -
they may, but they may also just use RGB which is what the Windows GDI
(Graphic Device Interface) uses as it's default color space.

On Friday, June 09, 2006 03:09 PM, Daniel Doornbos wrote:

< SNIP >

| When you print to PDF, you use a printer driver, either a specific
color
| laser printer or a generic driver. These drivers use CMYK color as
well,
| so again, you are left with an approximation.

- Lester 
-------------------------------------------------------
Lester C. Smalley              Email: lsmalley AT infocon DOT com 	
Information Consultants, Inc.  Phone: 302-239-2942 FAX: 302-239-1712	
Yorklyn, DE  19736               Web: www.infocon.com	
-------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________


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