Emulate Illustrator 6 Settings and ICC

[dimitri]

Hello all,

I have a question on the use of emulate illustrator 6 Settings. It is rather broad, as it affects the entire color management workflow.

We have calibrated the presses on G7. We use ColorProof XF from EFI to calibrate the Epson 9800 on the press sheet. The profiles are with Heavy GCR settings, and K starts at 95%. 300 is our TAC.

Most of the images we receive from our customers are CMYK, and most of them are untagged or have some random profile. Usually, we perform an ICC CMYK2CMYK conversion in Photoshop, changing to our custom profile. I say 'usually' because depending on the image, and particularly on whether it has a solid black, ICC converts that solid black to a rich black. In that case, we have to avoid ICC profiled workflows all together and make manual adjustments on the images. Then, whether these files have our press profile or are manually made, they are placed in illustrator, with the color settings set at "emulate illustrator 6 settings". This way, we believe that we preserve the CMYK values of the photoshop file.

Overall, we are successful matching the press to the proof at the color and density we set during the G7 fingerprint. However, we are not always succesful, and I am trying to find out the root cause.I suspect not honoring a color managed workflow, either through manual Photoshop color retouches or use of emulate illustrator 6 settings is the problem, but if we do not go that route we would be messing up the solids.

My question is whether overall this is the best approach, and whether you could suggest some improvement.

Thank you,
-Dimitri

 

[jrhmobile]

There are several possibilities

There are several possibilities

Hi Dimitri.

Not to start answering your questions by asking you questions, but there are some things to think about as you start focusing on possible improvements:

1. Are there any common factors to the images that don't work for you? Are they coming from certain clients and not others? Are they the manually-adjusted images? Or client-supplied ones? Are the problem images certain ones in trouble files? Or all the images in a trouble file? Did they have the same or similar color settings in the original client-supplied files? What output files and formats are you using to run the jobs? Any commonality, or even high likelihood, in problem jobs will help you focus on underlying issues.

2. What version of Photoshop, page layout program(s) and Acrobat are you using to adjust and run these files? Are all the applications using the same ICC output? Sometimes the output intent of a layout file or Acrobat PDF can have impact on how ICC profiles are interpreted. They shouldn't, but sometimes general color or ICC profile conflicts between applications can cause inexplicable problems. Especially if you're using older applications that don't fully share color profiles across the entire suite of output applications.

3. Is there a specific reason you're using Illustrator 6 emulation for your workflow? Does some equipment or software require this color setting for your workflow? Or has that been done as a matter of custom?

There are lots of sharp folks monitoring these forums. You've come to the right place. And with some detailed information, we can help you focus on effective solutions to your issues.

Randy Hagan

 

[dimitri]

Randy,

Thanks for the reply!
Let me start by #3.

#3_ The reason we use emulate illustrator 6 is because we are able to preserve the CMYK values of the photoshop file, so that we avoid ink contamination of solid colors. Possibly, a device link solution would help us there. But your description of 'custom' better describes the situation.

#2_ We use CS4 and we send 1-bit tiff files to our RIP, where the curves from the fingerprint are being applied, but no other profiles or color conversions. Since the proof is color managed to the press, we are able to hit whatever colors come out on the proof, even if we do not honor ICC color management all the way. Maybe I'm wrong here. I'm trying to understand where things could go wrong.
All manual color adjustments or ICC conversions take place in Photoshop and the files are then placed in illustrator. The intent we would use for a conversion in Photoshop would be relative.

#1_ Unfortunately, there is no common denominator in the files we receive, not at least one I could think of. I would say the input could be all of the above. However, we've experienced difficulties matching color for areas that have a light build coverage (20% and less total), and for areas where we have both vector and raster graphics. Brown colors have also been a problem.

Describing all that makes myself wonder why we don' have more problems, but we don't. We rarely need to make a plate remake to adjust color on press so that we can match the proof. However, we are missing to follow a complete color management workflow, and for a 5% of our orders that has posed a problem.

I'm mostly looking for suggestions for improvement, device link profiles or not, that would allow us to have a fully color managed workflow and maintain ink purity. That should work the rest of the 5%.

Regards,
-Dimitri

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

If you want to control colour from illustrator, I would recommend looking at phantasmCS, wich would be Welcome to Astute Graphics - publishers of the Phantasm CS Illustrator plug-in range since the name change. It would give you curves to control in illustrator, the same way as you do in photoshop. You can also there view separations etc so you should be able to forsee results reliably.