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If you are one of the millions of folks who assume that we are producing more accurate files for print today and that Adobe’s CS3’s conversion profiles reflect current printing technologies, you might want to think again. 
First, realize that the US Web Coated (SWOP) v2 profile is currently used for most of today’s print projects, regardless of [...]

I was just reflecting on the last decade of technological advancement in the publishing industry and thinking of all that we have accomplished. Let’s review:
Faster computers. Processing speed has increased exponentially. We process enormous-size files in mili-seconds. There are virtually no limits to our ability to push pixels around. I have 4 gigabytes of [...]

 
          In case you hadn’t noticed, printing images in the newspaper is an abysmal undertaking. While pretty much everyone knows that this morning’s newspaper is tonight’s birdcage liner, few people truly understand the stark reality of newsprint’s (lack of) dynamic range let alone what to do about it. [...]

One of those (not so new) great thing about today’s ink jet printers, both large and small, is that they print really great black and white prints. And the way they can do that is by extending the range of the tones by using two different black inks; or to put it more accurately, a [...]

Not all printing presses operate the same. There are many different printing processes, each requiring a unique machine, and each transferring ink onto paper in a unique manor. Therefore, for best results, each of these presses deserve unique file preparation (profile conversion) to produce their best results. Press speed, paper quality, and ink viscosity play [...]

Have you ever wondered why printing companies request that files be sent to them in pre-separated CMYK format? Well, wonder no more…
While printers claim that they don’t want the responsibility of converting files to CMYK without the customer seeing the files after conversion from the larger RGB color space to the always-smaller CMYK space, that [...]

Try this question first. When are 8-bit color images really 24-bit color images? That was a trick question. But here’s a truthful answer: 8-bit color images are ALWAYS 24-bit images. EVERY color image opened in 8-bit mode in Photoshop is automatically a 24-bit image. Sometimes they are actually 32-bit images.
The calculation of bit-depth is figured on [...]

 
When it comes to specifying an exact color, nothing beats the Pantone Matching System. Today this is more true than ever before. The transition that Pantone has experienced over the last two years has brought this already world-respected company into the digital twenty-first century. The company has completely reinvented itself with new digital specifications for [...]

While you don’t to have been a pressman to understand the physical limitations of a printing press, press jockies get to learn this truth first-hand. Here’s an insider tip for those who still have most of their hearing and whose fingernails have never looked like those of an auto mechanic: 
There is a very real limit [...]

Bit depth is a measure of the number of shades or tones between solid (of any color) and no tone at all. Ideally we are talking about this “solid” being a very dark color (like black). When we refer to an 8-bit image, the bit-depth (or number of tones including solid color and no color) [...]