[Scribus] Colour management confusion

[Hal V. Engel]

On Thursday 15 November 2007 16:59:52 rockbeer wrote:
> Hal V. Engel wrote:
> > What color space are you using for the cmyk color in Scribus and in
> > Photoshop?
> > Are they the same?
>
> They aren't the same - they can't be, as the options available in each
> application are quite different. My cm setup is:
>
> Photoshop (5.5) CMYK setup:
> Model: Built in (ICC is unavailable - any ideas why, anyone?)
> Ink Colours: Eurostandard coated (as advised by my printer)
>
> Scribus cmyk setup:
> cmyk pictures & printer: Euroscale coated v2 (closest option to
> Eurostandard coated, I believe)
>
> All the above running on Win XP
>
> Does that help?

OK you just answered your own question.  The reason the colors look different 
is because they are different becasue they are in different color spaces.  In 
order to get them to appear the same when they have the same CMYK (or RGB) 
values they need to be in the same color space.  You can prove this to 
yourself by pulling up an image in photoshop and assigning different profiles 
to it.  This process does not change the numeric values of any of the colors 
in the image but the colors displayed on your monitor will change as you 
assign different profiles. 

As to why Photoshop will not let you set a CMYK profile perhaps this has 
something to do with how old of a version you are using.  They are up to 
version 9.0 (CS3) at this time.  Someone with more Photoshop background than 
me might be able to confirm that this is the issue.

Since your printer has advised using Eurostandard coated as your OUTPUT color 
space why are you using a different profile?  I was able to find a place to 
get a download of that profile.   Also if the printer advised using it 
perhaps they can supply a copy of it to you.   I think you would be much 
happer if you worked in a color space intended for image editing and then 
created an output file for your printer in the color space that they want.   
That is the normal process and most CM professionals advise against working 
in a small gamut output color space like those for printers. 

>
> (Why is colour management so difficult, he asks plaintively. Surely it
> could be managed so much better at OS level, i.e. a universal OS-level tool
> that allows you to input all relevant details, configure hardware profiles,
> and select different setups based on the task at hand, and that client apps
> can obtain their settings from rather than having to configure each client
> independently and just hope they play nicely together.)

Since you are using Windows you need to ask Bill and company this question.  
This is what we are working toward for our open systems but it will take us a 
while to get there.  Because the Mac was the original machine that was used 
for this type of work it's systems are more advanced and some but not all of 
what you want is available there. 

But you are correct that it would be easier if the underlaying system provided 
better support and if the applications (this includes device driver too) used 
that support.  But even if that was the case you would still need to have a 
basic understanding of how this worked to be able to properly configure such 
a system.  So even with a system like you envision there is still a 
significant learning curve to be able to set up a proper color managed work 
flow. 

Hal