Thread: Setting The Colour Controls

In Adobe Photoshop the the colour management controls are accessed from Edit> Color Settings (or [Shift] + [Ctrl] + [K]). Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photo Shop have a setting for Working Space. This sets the default colour space that any un-tagged image files will be converted into when opened and also will be saved as. There are separate settings for RGB and CMYK files. Depending on the Policies settings, opening image files that are tagged with a colour space that is not the same as the working space can trigger an options warning. Below the CMYK setting are choices for Dot Gain. Dot gain relates to the absorbency of the paper used for printing. Dots represented as a certain size in the image file tend to grow in size when printed as the ink soaks in to the paper.



This affects the appear¬ance of printed colours. Engine and Intent settings are as previ¬ously mentioned in the section on Colour Engines. Rather than use a control panel with a series of drop down menus and entry boxes Corel have adopted a much clearer flow chart diagram to illustrate the colour work flow. In CorelDRAW X3, in X4 and in the associ¬ated Photo-Paint, the menu selection Tools > Color Management, launches a control panel displaying a graphical representation of the colour work flow (pressing the Alt 0, Alt c key combinations also opens this window).

The internal colour space is shown at the centre with five icons representing scanner or camera input, printing press output, display screen, desktop colour print output and file input/output surrounding it in an equally spaced ring. Drop down menus below each icon allow selection of profiles, while arrows running between the internal colour space and the device icons allow selection of different colour paths. Clicking on the arrows toggles the appropriate profiles on and off. Further arrows running between the two print icons and the display icon allow settings for soft proofing. Left clicking on all of the icons except the scan¬ner/camera opens an Advanced settings control panel associated with that icon.