Color Managed Target

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Use ColorThink Pro to answer the question:

Contents

"How do I know if this scrambled target is color managed?"

This one is so simple, that it's almost harder to describe it than it is to do it.

The Problem

One of the most common reasons why the procedure of profiling a printer can fail is that the target used was color-managed in its printing. A good profiling target needs to be printed without any use of profiles in the print path.

One trick that many use with RGB targets is to look for the solid yellow patch in the target, and make sure that it really is solid yellow - no other colors (little drops of cyan or magenta) in there. If there are other colors in there, that is a sign that color management is happening and you should look to find the source of it, turn it off, and print a new target. You can locate a solid yellow patch relatively easy with a "visual" target - a target where all the colors are laid out in neat, orderly rows. But how do you find the 100% yellow patch in a scrambled target?

The Solution

Finding the 100% yellow patch

With an RGB target

  1. Click on the "B" heading in the Colors field to order the list according to the blue amount (the opposite of yellow), smaller to larger. The entire list is re-ordered so that the top third contains patches with no blue.
  2. At this point it is a simple matter to visually run down the column of color patches, looking for a strong yellow - skipping over those that have anything less than 255 in the R or G column. Yellow, in the RGB world, is made up of Red and Green.
  3. Once you have found the 255.0 255.0 0.0 patch, you have found the 100% yellow.
  4. Check the far left column to see what the name or location this patch is found on your target, and voilÄ - you know where to look on your target.

In this example, you would find the 100% yellow patch in column "I", row "9" of your target.

Finding a black-only patch

CMYK target

To confirm that no color management is happening in a CMYK target, you would look for the black only (K only) patches, and confirm that there is only black ink is being used to print.

  1. Click on the K heading in the Colors field to order the list according to black ink amount, smaller to larger.
  2. It is usually a simple matter to visually run down the column of color patches, looking for a patch that contains only black ink. (The C, M and Y columns would all show 0.) Choosing a patch in the area of 30-50% K ink will usually make it easier to confirm what color ink is used.
  3. Check the far left column to see what the name or location this patch is found on your target, and presto - you know where to look on your target.

In this example, you would find a black-only patch at B27: in column "B", row "27".

When would I use this?

This test is a good confirmation that your target was made without color management. This might be useful if you have to depend on someone else (in your company or an outside print vendor) to print the target for you, and you're not sure of the settings they used.


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