HELP! Colour Theory & Colour Management Tutes!

[dwanehollands]

Ok,

I've had fairly short notice to begin lecturing design students at the local university on prepping files for commercial print.

8 Weeks with 3 hours per week of class time. I have to give them 3 sizeable projects, class activities plus theory.

Todays my first day - in about 4 hours - and I had previously written a very simple to understand Colour Theory Primer and Halftone Theory Primer for our website about a year ago, but low and behold I cannot find it after much searching. (we changed website systems and I can't find the original HTML files)

So I've got to teach on Colour Theory, Halftone Theory, Printing Primer and even ICC based colour management today! Yikes.

Although I can shoot from the hip, I do need to give them resources as proof that I've taught them.

Anyone have any tutes, or easy white papers laying around that they could sling me in a few hours?

BTW, if anyone has a multimedia colour mangement/colour theory primer that they would be able to direct me to, that would be great for showing the students too. (alternatively something I could burn to disk and distribute to the students. Free promo!)

(Hmmm, 4 years of prepress stuffed into 24 hours of class time, yeah that's going to be easy: )

Much thanks!

Edited by: Dwane Hollands on Jul 30, 2008 9:11 AM

[dwanehollands]

Hmm, my post has fallen off the front page pretty quickly. Not sure why. Perhaps my title heading get's it filtered out.

FYI. I did the first lecture which went pretty well. Did a Colour Theory Primer, Halftone Screening Primer, Offset Lithography primer and Colour Management Primer. I managed to find a paper on the internet regarding Colour Theory which was suitable for teaching newbies, so I gave that to them as resources.

I will however, like to give them more information, since I'm told they actually do go back to their reference materials.

So if anyone has some good well written tutorials that they're willing to part with or share I'm all ears!

Edited by: Dwane Hollands on Jul 31, 2008 3:25 PM

[phantasm]

Hi Dwane,

Not sure of such a comprehensive site out there that covers everything, but I can thoroughly recommend investing in the book "Color Management - A Comprehensive Guide for Graphic Designers". I presume it's available internationally as the main title is spelt wrong ;-)

This book covers a huge amount of theory and practice including the fundamentals, which I hope would be a requirement when teaching! :-)

The book's authors are John T Drew and Sarah A Meyer, it's published by RotoVision and its ISBN number is 2-88046-819-1

I bought the hardback version when it appeared, but I think it's now also available as a softback.

Another great resource is the book "Print & Finish" by Ambrose / Harris and published by [ava books|http://www.avabooks.ch/]. Another wonderful resource this time covering print technicalities such as screening, inks, substrates, etc. ISBN: 2-940373-42-6

Hope this is of help,

Nick

[dwanehollands]

Nick,

Thanks for that info! Those books sound pretty good. Although I'm also interested in simple papers which I can give to the designers aswell. I was also looking at getting that book that Chris Murphy & Bruce Fraser had put out "Real World Color Management".

[Lukas Engqvist]

Xrite had a good online training once you register on their site.
I really like the piece on http://www.huevaluechroma.com/
also check out http://www.eci.org

Otherwwise testing and analysing prfiles is a good way o go.

[phantasm]

> {quote:title=Lukas Engqvit wrote:}{quote}
> I really like the piece on http://www.huevaluechroma.com/

Very nice resource! Thanks for the link :-)

Nick

[phantasm]

> {quote:title=dwanehollands wrote:}{quote}
> Nick,
>
> Thanks for that info! Those books sound pretty good. Although I'm also interested in simple papers which I can give to the designers aswell. I was also looking at getting that book that Chris Murphy & Bruce Fraser had put out "Real World Color Management".

Glad it's of help.

I haven't come across the book you mentioned before, but if its the same as the one I just looked up (Peachpit Press), it appears to have some good reviews. Pity it doesn't seem to have been updated since 2004 (2 edition - 16 Sep 2004).

All the best,

Nick

[Lukas Engqvist]

I hope it's ok to reference a list from another site, TGLC has some interesting products, but they also have a great links page

http://www.tglc.com/english/Resources_ENG.html

[ljgoldberg]

"A Guide to Understanding Color Communication" may be helpful.

http://www.xrite.com/documents/liter...d_Color_en.pdf

Light technical reading with a hint of why there's still some art in the science of color. The glossary can also help them to speak accurately.

Regards,

Larry Goldberg
Beta Industries
www.betascreen.com

Edited by: Larry Goldberg on Aug 1, 2008 2:38 PM

[msubalas]

There is a 32 page booklet titled "Color Handbook for the Graphic Arts" from
a group called BRIDG'S. It covers all the basics from what is color, how is
color reproduced, the influence of paper and ink, how do we measure color,
and how do we manage color. The books are available at the IPA web site
www.printtools.org and make a great take-home reference for students.
If you have any interest we can arrange to minimize the cost of obtaining
some copies for your class.
Dennis Balas