The
Authors
CMYK COLOR: Visual & Digital References for Professionals,
and the interactive companion workbook, Digital Image Prepress for
Designers & Photographers, were conceived, written, designed,
and photographed by Gerald Fields and Gary Nichols. The concept of these
materials is to address all areas of color reproduction in a clear,
concise manner, and provide the information, tools, and technical methods
necessary for superior color printing on commercial offset equipment.
Gerald Fields is a color correction artist whose experience goes back
to the days of camera separations and dot etching. He specializes in
high resolution digital scanning and color correction for exact color
matching. In addition to color correction services for ad agencies and
commercial printers, Gerald also produces Glicee limited edition fine
arts prints for painters and illustrators. He is owner of The Color
Company located in Houston, Texas.
Gary Nichols is a copywriter and photographer with international ad
agency experience. Since 1983 he has created and published a variety
of advertising and educational materials for healthcare and industrial
clients. Gary has hands-on experience with all types of offset printing
presses and understands the problems and challenges associated with
high quality process color reproduction. In 1995 he began capturing
high resolution digital images with file sizes exceeding 100 MB. Gary
owns Metro Publishing, also located in Houston, Texas.
Origin of CMYK COLOR
For
the past twenty-plus years a small group of color separators, printers,
graphic artists, and others within the printing industry has met for
breakfast every Saturday morning at a coffee shop in Houston, Texas.
Through the years these informal weekly meetings became a time to share
information, solve problems others were having, and recount examples
of production problems.
Before
1990, most of our problems related to conventional camera separations,
film stripping, and press work. As we entered the computer age, the
problems seemed to divide themselves into two distinct categories: software
problems we were having internally and problems brought to us by clients
and graphic designers.
“You
won’t believe what somebody brought me this week!” became a regular
exclamation every Saturday. Each of us was struggling to learn about
industry changes resulting from computerization. At the same time, we
felt that many of the problems inherent in electronic print production
were passed to us without a thought about the consequences. Quite often
it took longer to fix a problem someone else had created than to reconstruct
the whole job from scratch.
As we
learned more, we thought others would learn more, too, and the pass-along
problems would become fewer. Wrong! When computers dropped in price
and software became more powerful, the problems actually escalated.
The “you won’t believe this!” became a contest on Saturday and everyone
was a winner.
In the
fall of 1999, I began composing “cheat sheets” discussing various situations
brought to us that regularly caused trouble. Some of these sheets dealt
with converting RGB files to CMYK mode, verifying image resolution relative
to output requirements, and discussing methods for color correction.
Copies of these sheets were given to clients and graphic designers with
the hope of reducing the number of repetitive problems.
This
was the beginning of CMYK Color. The concept was to solve
production problems relating to CMYK image preparation and printing
by addressing real-world issues. One goal was to touch on every topic
relating to the four-color printing process. Another goal was to provide
the necessary tools and information for creating superior color images
presented in a practical, easy to understand manner. A third goal was
to create a valuable, long-lasting visual and digital reference produced
at the highest quality level.
Finally,
we realized that the world does change—on a daily basis! Recognizing
the need to continually update and revise the Manual’s content, a CD
with additional information and a recorded conversation among a group
of production specialists was included. A forum addressing CMYK issues
was also established on our web site.
CMYK
Color was created to provide the information necessary for superior
four-color reproduction—and to make everyone's work easier and more profitable. You're invited to
contribute your comments and suggestions by posting them on our web
site. Everyone will benefit.
Gary
Nichols
June 2003
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