Expert: Glen Demers - 3/18/2009

Question
Mr Demers,

I'm a web based designer breaking new ground by designing a photoshop illustration for print. It's the first time I do this in a serious project so I wanted to be sure I did it right from the start, however something seems to have gone wrong anyway.
My problem is this basically: when I save my image as a .jpg and view it in the windows (xp) picture viewer the colors, especially the pale yellows, look almost grayscale-gray and washed out. But if i open the same .jpg-file in PS again the colors look the same as in the PSD.
I've worked in CMYK mode the whole time, and I also have the Proof colors ticked on as Working CMYK. I also checked if the colors I was using was out of gamut range but I've colorpicked my final image a hundred times and I don't get any gamut warnings.
The main colors in my illustration are pale bright yellow and rich deep "jungle"-green. I knew the greens could shift a little in the turnout but (apart from a little pale) they actually look 10 times better than the yellows in the picture viewer.
I know photoshop is colormanaged and the picture viewer is not. But if printed, which version will it resemble most?

I'm sorry I don't know the specs for which type of paper or ink or what kind of printer or colormanaging tools my contractor is using, but i know they are a big graphic design & art magazine, distributed worldwide so I would bet they have sufficient technology and tools for this stuff.
I know i should probably ask them for advice too. But the deadline is coming up in a days time and I don't want to trouble them at this late time. It wold mean the world if you took the time to answer this.

Many thanks in advance

All the best
Magnus

Answer
Hi Magnus

My first bit of advice is to not use .jpg, save as a .tif file. Depending on how it's made, a .jpg is a lossy compression scheme and it may limit your color gamut as well.
Make sure to calibrate your monitor, Photoshop refers to this calibration whenever it displays an image. take a reading with the eyedropper tool in a grey area and make sure that in the info palette the RGB readings match. For example, a grey haired gentleman (not a lady as some use a bluish rinse) should be R-110, G-110, B-110 in a light grey patch of hair, don't worry if the reading vary 5 points or so. This will tell you that the image is color balanced. You may stay in CMYK mode and just get the RGB readings from the info palette.

That being done, take a reading from your pale yellow, it should be mostly yellow with the other colors not approaching 10% of the yellow value. If your pale yellow is 50% Yellow then the Cyan, Magenta and Black components should not be greater then 5%. Greys are produced by equal values of CMY or too much Black. My guess is that the colors in the windows picture viewer are off. The yellow color shift in the dark greens may result in the greens looking richer as the Cyan and Magenta components of the green become more pronounced.

Make sure you see a color proof from your printer before the press run, preferably in a light booth or viewing stand, and if you can supply them with a color sample of what you are trying to match that would help, eg. I want a pale yellow like Pantone 393 and the greens to look like Pantone 349.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

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