Introduction
Color management has changed a lot in the last few years, standards have been set up, and Adobe is at the forefront of this new technology. No longer do you have to fear color management, because Adobe Photoshop has taken all (or at least most) of the guesswork out of the equation. Adobe's color management system (CMS) translates, known as rendering intents, color discrepancies between the input device and the output device using color profiles to avoid color-matching problems.When you work on a computer monitor, you're viewing color information in the RGB (red, green, and blue), additive color space. When you move into the world of the 4-color press, you're viewing color information in the CMYK, subtractive color space. While a standard color press uses 4 colors, in reality, CMY (cyan, magenta, and yellow) are the opposites of RGB. A press to generate a true black uses the K plate (K stands for black, or key plate). Monitors display RGB colors very differently; when you factor in monitor resolutions, and the different types of monitors in the marketplace, what you see on a computer monitor is seldom what anyone else sees on their monitors. And that's not all, everyone that owns a computer, has the ability to adjust or calibrate the colors on their monitors, further confusing the issue.While nothing is perfect, the world of print is more controlled. For example, when you're working on a color document moving to press, you use a predetermined set of colors, such as, the Pantone Color Matching System. The Pantone colors come printed on special card stock. When you're looking for a specific color, you make the determination from the card stock, and then that information is transferred to the press operator. This type of control, even including the type of paper, keeps you in charge of the process of moving from monitor to print.