Why colors sometimes don’t match

No device in a publishing system is capable of reproducing the full range of colors viewable to the human eye. Each device operates within a specific color space that can produce a certain range, or gamut, of colors.

A color model determines the relationship between values, and the color space defines the absolute meaning of those values as colors. Some color models (such as CIE L*a*b) have a fixed color space because they relate directly to the way humans perceive color. These models are described as being device-independent. Other color models (RGB, HSL, HSB, CMYK, and so forth) can have many different color spaces. Because these models vary with each associated color space or device, they are described as being device-dependent.

Because of these varying color spaces, colors can shift in appearance as you transfer documents between different devices. Color variations can result from differences in image sources; the way software applications define color; print media (newsprint paper reproduces a smaller gamut than magazine-quality paper); and other natural variations, such as manufacturing differences in monitors or monitor age

Working Space options

To display working space options in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, choose Edit > Color Settings. In Acrobat, select the Color Management category of the Preferences dialog box. To view a description of any profile, select the profile and then position the pointer over the profile name. The description appears at the bottom of the dialog box. RGB Determines the RGB color space of the application. In general, it’s best to choose Adobe RGB or sRGB, rather than the profile for a specific device (such as a monitor profile). sRGB is recommended when you prepare images for the web, because it defines the color space of the standard monitor used to view images on the web. sRGB is also a good choice when you work with images from consumer-level digital cameras, because most of these cameras use sRGB as their default color space.

Adobe RGB is recommended when you prepare documents for print, because Adobe RGB’s gamut includes some printable colors (cyans and blues in particular) that can't be defined using sRGB. Adobe RGB is also a good choice when working with images from professional-level digital cameras, because most of these cameras use Adobe RGB as their default color space.

CMYK Determines the CMYK color space of the application. All CMYK working spaces are device-dependent, meaning that they are based on actual ink and paper combinations. The CMYK working spaces Adobe supplies are based on standard commercial print conditions.

1. Gray (Photoshop) or Grayscale (Acrobat) Determines the grayscale color space of the application.

2. Spot (Photoshop) Specifies the dot gain to use when displaying spot color channels and duotones.

Note: In Acrobat, you can use the color space in an embedded output intent instead of a document color space for viewing and printing. Select Output Intent Overrides Working Spaces.

Adobe applications ship with a standard set of working space profiles that have been recommended and tested by Adobe Systems for most color management workflows. By default, only these profiles appear in the working space menus. To display additional color profiles that you have installed on your system, select Advanced Mode (Illustrator and InDesign) or More Options (Photoshop). A color profile must be bi‑directional, that is, contain specifications for translating both into and out of color spaces, in order to appear in the working space menus.

Note: In Photoshop, you can create custom working space profiles. However, Adobe recommends that you use a standard working space profile rather than create a custom profile.

About missing and mismatched color profiles

For a newly created document, the color workflow usually operates seamlessly: unless specified otherwise, the document uses the working space profile associated with its color mode for creating and editing colors. However, some existing documents may not use the working space profile that you have specified, and some existing documents may not be color-managed. It is common to encounter the following exceptions to your color-managed workflow:

You might open a document or import color data (for example, by copying and pasting or dragging and dropping) from a document that is not tagged with a profile. This is often the case when you open a document created in an application that either does not support color management or has color management turned off. You might open a document or import color data from a document that is tagged with a profile different from the current working space. This may be the case when you open a document that was created using different color management settings, or scanned and tagged with a scanner profile.

In either case, the application uses a color management policy to decide how to handle the color data in the document. If the profile is missing or does not match the working space, the application may display a warning message, depending on options you set in the Color Settings dialog box. Profile warnings are turned off by default, but you can turn them on to ensure the appropriate color management of documents on a case-by-case basis. The warning messages vary between applications, but in general you have the following options:

(Recommended) Leave the document or imported color data as it is. For example, you can choose to use the embedded profile (if one exists), leave the document without a color profile (if one doesn’t exist), or preserve the numbers in pasted color data.

Adjust the document or imported color data. For example, when opening a document with a missing color profile, you can choose to assign the current working space profile or a different profile. When opening a document with a mismatched color profile, you can choose to discard the profile or convert the colors to the current working space. When importing color data, you can choose to convert the colors to the current working space in order to preserve their appearance.

Distortion Tools

Some of the tools in the Liquify dialog box destructive brush area when you press the mouse button or drag. That focused on the distortion is the center of the brush area, and the effect intensifies as you press the mouse button or repeatedly drag over an area.

Forward Warp tool: a tool component pushes pixels forward as you drag. Shift-click with the warp tool, Push Left tool, mirror or tool to create interesting effects in a straight line from the previous point you clicked. Twirl Clockwise Tool: rotates pixels clockwise as you press the mouse button or drag.To rotate counterclockwise pixels, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you press the mouse button or drag. Pucker Tool: Moves pixels toward the center of the brush area as you press the mouse button or drag. Bloat Tool: Moves pixels from the center of the brush area as you press the mouse button or drag. Push Left Tool: Moves pixels to the left when you pull the tool straight up (pixel moves to the right if you drag down). You can also drag an object around the clock to increase the size, or drag counterclockwise to reduce its size. To encourage the pixels when you drag the top right of the straight (or to move the pixels when you drag the bottom left), press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you drag. Mirror Tool Copies pixels to the brush area. Pull the mirror area perpendicular to the direction of a stroke (to the left of the stroke). Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to the mirror area in the opposite direction of the stroke (eg, the area above the downward stroke). Typically, Alt-drag or Option-drag to give better results when you have frozen the area you want to think. Overlap strokes used to create an effect similar to a reflection in the water. Turbulance Tools: smoothly scrambles pixels. This is useful for creating fire, clouds, waves, and the same effect. Liquify: tool of choice Tool of choice in the dialog box, specify the following options: Brush Size: Sets the width of your brush will be used to damage the image. Brush Pressure: Sets the speed of the distortions created when you drag a tool in the preview image. Using a low brush pressure makes changes occur more slowly, so they are easier to stop exactly at the right time. Brush Rate: Sets the speed of distortion that will be applied when you keep a tool (such as tool rotation) stationary in the preview image. Setting a higher level, the greater the distortion applied speed. Brush Density: Controls how the brush bristles at the edge. Strong effect on the middle and lightly brush on the edge. Turbulent Jitter: jitney strict control how the turbulence tool scrambles pixels. Reconstruct Mode: Used to return the tool, the mode you choose will determine how the tool reconstructs the image preview area. Select Stylus Pressure: Using the stylus pressure reading from the tablets. (This option is available only when you work with a stylus tablet.) When selected, the brush pressure to the tool stylus is pressure multiplied by the Brush Pressure value.

Make a Metal Button

Create a new image, and fill the background with the color that you like. Use Rounded Rectangle Tool to draw a shape that you want your button to look like.











Now is the time to add Inner Shadow to your shape. Right click on the shape layer and select Blending Options...Layer Style window will open, select the settings that you see on the screenshot.















In the Layer Style window select Inner Glow on the left and use settings that you see on the screenshot.





















In the Layer Style window select Gradient Overlay on the left and use settings that you see on the screenshot.












In the Layer Style window select Stroke on the left and use settings that you see on the screenshot.













Press ok when you done and your image should look like this.

Correcting Colors in CMYK and RGB

Although you can perform all color and tonal corrections in RGB mode and most adjustments in CMYK mode, you should choose a mode carefully. Avoid multiple conversions between modes, because color values are rounded and lost with each conversion. RGB images to be used on‑screen do not need to be converted to CMYK mode. CMYK images that will be separated and printed, do not need to have color corrections made in RGB mode. If you must convert your image from one mode to another, perform most of your tonal and color corrections in RGB mode and use CMYK mode for fine-tuning. The advantages of working in RGB mode are:

• You can save memory and improve performance because there are fewer channels.
• RGB has a wider range of colors than CMYK, and more colors are likely to be preserved after adjustments.
• You can preview composite CMYK colors and separation plates using the CMYK working space in the Color Settings dialog box. Or, you can preview colors using a custom CMYK color profile.

note : You can edit an image in RGB mode in one window and view the same image in CMYK colors in another window. Choose Window > Arrange > New Window For (Filename) to open a second window. Select the Working CMYK option for Proof Setup, then choose the Proof Color command to turn on the CMYK preview in one of the windows.

Processing images with Camera Raw

1. Copy camera raw files to your hard disk, organize them, and (optionally) convert them to DNG. Before you do any work on the images that your camera raw files represent, you need to transfer them from the camera’s memory card, organize them, give them useful names rather than sequential numbers, and otherwise prepare them for use. Use the Get Photos From Camera command in Bridge to accomplish these tasks automatically. 2. Open the image files in Camera Raw. You can open camera raw files in Camera Raw from Bridge, After Effects, or Photoshop. You can also open JPEG and TIFF files in Camera Raw from Bridge. 3. Adjust color. Color adjustments include white balance, tone, and saturation. You can make most adjustments in the Basic tab, and then use controls in the other tabs to fine‑tune the results. If you want Camera Raw to analyze your image and apply its best guess regarding tonal adjustments, click Auto in the Basic tab. To apply the settings used for the previous image, or to apply the default settings for the camera model, camera, or ISO settings, choose the appropriate command from the Camera Raw Settings menu.
4. Make other adjustments and image corrections. Use other tools and controls in the Camera Raw dialog box to perform such tasks as sharpening the image, reducing noise, correcting for lens defects, and retouching. 5. (Optional) Save image settings as a preset or as default image settings. To apply the same adjustments to other images later, save the settings as a preset. If you want to save the adjustments as the defaults to be applied to all images from a specific camera model, a specific camera, or a specific ISO setting, save the image settings as the new Camera Raw defaults. 6. Set workflow options for Photoshop. Set options to specify the characteristics of images saved from Camera Raw and how Photoshop should open them. 7. Save the image, or open it in Photoshop or After Effects. When you finish adjusting the image in Camera Raw, you have four basic options: apply the adjustments to the camera raw file, open the adjusted image in another application, save the adjusted image to another format, or cancel and discard adjustments. If you open the Camera Raw dialog box from After Effects or Photoshop, the Save and Done buttons are unavailable. Save Applies the Camera Raw settings to the images and saves copies of them in JPEG, PSD, TIFF, or DNG format. Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to suppress the Camera Raw Save Options dialog box and save the files using the last set of save options. Open or OK Opens copies of the camera raw image files (with the Camera Raw settings applied) in Photoshop or After Effects. The original camera raw image file remains unaltered. Done Closes the Camera Raw dialog box and stores file settings either in the camera raw database file, in the sidecar XMP file, or in the DNG file. Cancel Cancels the adjustments specified in the Camera Raw dialog box.

Photoshop Color Mode

RGB Color Mode
Standard colors in Photoshop using RGB color mode, put the intensity of a value for each pixel. In 8-bit per channel images, the intensity value ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white) for each RGB (red, green, blue) color components in the picture. For example, bright red color might have an R value of 246, a G value of 20, and B value of 50. If the value of the same three components, the result is a shadow of a neutral gray. If the values of all components is 255, the result will be white and clean; when the value of 0, would be pure black.

RGB images use three colors or channels (channels) to produce colors on the screen. In 8-bit per channel images, the three channels translate to 24 (8 bits x 3 channels) bits per pixel color information. With 24-bit images, which can generate three channels to 16.7 million colors per pixel. With 48-bit (16-bits per channel) and 96-bit (32-bits per channel) images, even more reproducible color per pixel. Besides the default mode for new Photoshop images, RGB model used by computer monitors to display colors. This means that when working in color modes other than RGB, such as CMYK, Photoshop interpolates the CMYK image to RGB for display on the screen.

Although RGB is a standard color model, the right to represent the various colors can vary, depending on the application or Monitor. RGB color mode in Photoshop vary according to the workspace settings that you specify in the Color Settings dialog box (Color Settings) ..

CMYK Color Mode
In CMYK mode, each pixel is given a percentage score for each process tints. The lightest (highlight) colors are assigned small percentage of the color ink, the dark (shadow) colors higher percentages. For example, bright red might contain 2% cyan, magenta 93%, 90% Yellow, and Black 0%. In CMYK images, pure white is produced after all there are four components of value 0%.

Using the CMYK mode when preparing an image to be printed by using the color / ink process. Conversion RGB images to CMYK to make the separation of colors (color separation). If you start with an RGB image, it is best to edit in RGB mode and then converted to CMYK at the end of the process. In RGB mode, you can use the Soft Proof Colors (ctrl + Y) to simulate the effects of a CMYK conversion without changing the original image data. You can also use CMYK mode to work directly with CMYK images scanned or imported from high-end systems.

Although CMYK is the standard color model, the right to represent the various colors can vary, depending on printing conditions (ink and type of paper used). CMYK color mode in Photoshop vary according to the workspace settings that you specify in the Color Settings dialog box (Color Settings).

Lab Color Mode
The CIE L * a * b * color model (Lab) based on human color perception. Lab values in the figures explain all the colors that people used to seeing. Since the Lab color explains how
colors appear on a certain number of colors needed devices (such as monitors, desktop printers, or digital camera) to produce color, Color Lab is considered as a device-independent color model.

Lab Color Mode has a lighting component (L) which can range from 0 to 100. In the Adobe Color Picker and color palette, then the component (red-green axis) and component b (blue-yellow axis) can range from 127 to -128.

Lab images can be saved in Photoshop, Photoshop EPS, Large Document Format (PSB), Photoshop, PDF, Photoshop Raw, TIFF, Photoshop DCS 1.0, or Photoshop DCS 2.0 format. You can save 48-bit (16-bits per channel) Lab images in Photoshop, Large Document Format (PSB), Photoshop, PDF, Photoshop Raw, or TIFF format.
Note: The DCS 1.0 and DCS 2.0 formats convert files to CMYK when opened.

Grayscale Color Mode
Using various modes grayscale Shades of gray in the pictures. In 8-bit images, should not be up to 256 shades of gray. Each pixel of the grayscale image has a brightness value ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white). In the 16 and 32-bit images, the number of shades in this picture much bigger than the 8-bit images. Grayscale values can also be calculated as a percentage of black ink coverage (0% equal to the white, 100% to black). Grayscale using various modes are determined by the workspace settings that you specify in the Color Settings dialog box (Color Settings) ..

Bitmap Color Mode
Bitmap mode using one of two color values (black or white) to represent a pixel in the image. Images in Bitmap mode are called bitmapped 1-bit images because there is little depth of 1.

Duotone color mode
Duotone mode is used to create a monotone, duotone (two-color), tritone (three colors), and quadtone (four-color) grayscale images using one to four custom inks.

Indexed Color Mode
Indexed Color mode to produce 8-bit image files up to 256 colors. When converting to indexed color, Photoshop color table building (Clutter), which stores and indexes the colors in the picture. If the colors in the original image does not appear in the table, the program chose the closest one or uses dithering to simulate the color using the available colors.
Although a limited color palette, color index can reduce the file size but still maintain the visual quality needed for multimedia presentations, web pages, and others. Limited color editing in this mode. Extensive editing, you need to change the RGB mode for a while. Indexed color files can be saved in Photoshop, BMP, DICOM, GIF, Photoshop EPS, Large Document Format (PSB), PCX, Photoshop, PDF, Photoshop Raw, Photoshop 2.0, PICT, PNG, Targa, TIFF or format.

Multichannel mode
Multichannel mode images contain 256 levels of gray in each channel and is useful for specialized printing. Multichannel mode images can be saved in Photoshop, Large Document Format (PSB), Photoshop 2.0, Photoshop Raw, or Photoshop DCS 2.0 format.
These guidelines apply when converting images to Multichannel mode:
Color channels in the original image become spot color channels in the converted image. Convert a CMYK image to Multichannel mode creates cyan, magenta, yellow, black and spot channels. Conversion RGB image to Multichannel mode creates cyan, magenta, and yellow spot channels. Removing channels from RGB, CMYK, or Lab image automatically converts the image to Multichannel mode.

source: adobe photoshop CS3 tutorials

Convert to a different color mode

You can change the image / picture of the original mode (source mode) to the various modes you need. When you choose a different color for the image mode, you are permanently changing the color values in the picture. For example, if you change the picture RGB mode to CMYK mode, the values of RGB colors outside the CMYK mode (determined by the settings in the CMYK color settings) will be adjusted as a whole. As a result, some values will change color and can not be returned if you convert the image from CMYK to RGB.

Before converting the image, it's good to do the following:
Do as much as possible to edit the original image mode (usually for RGB images from scanners or as a digital camera, or images from CMYK to traditional drum scanners or imported from Scitex system).
Save a backup copy before converting. Be sure to save copies of images covering all layers so you can edit the original version of the image after the conversion. If you have not convinced most frequently is the use Proof Colors to see the difference (between RGB and CMYK). Mode dan modus yang diinginkan dari submenu.">If you're satisfied Choose Image> Mode and the desired mode from the submenu. If you want to convert to Multichannel mode, Bitmap, or Indexed Color mode, Combining image (Flatten Image) because this mode does not support Layer.

Source: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Tutorial

Why are black (sometimes) not 100%

Actually the black offset printing task is to sharpen the picture / complement. Because the mixture of 3 colors (CMY) a picture had to be formed rather than after the love of the newly formed black color (see Color Settings). Many of the people or consumers who can computer design in this case but did not understand how the actual printing process of printing (offset printing) it. They tried to make their own after they finish the new design was brought to the printing press was even more extreme they get the file directly to the image setter. Sometimes they forget, if there is some text that they want is the black color (K 100%) but because they do not know even the results of each color present in this case on a Cyan, Magenta there, there was Yellow and Black are also available. Actually, if a large object may be not too risky but if a small object such as a text might be different results slightly shifted / not fit. Moreover, if the printing machine operator rather less fuss and not even karuan jelly results. Why does this happen?Mix (use) 2 application (vector and pixel) is a wise choice. If you use Adobe Photoshop with CorelDRAW (as I normally use) to make 100% black will not be hard for a black 100% in corel its just piling up / above the image so when we look at his plate or in the movie can be seen clearly. And what about photoshop? if we use any real photoshop can also change its mode by a CMYK and create a new layer with blending mode to Multiply trus love black 100%. If you want to see the results in the channel open. Hopefully useful:)