Designing automobiles is a tremendous amount of work to say the least. The design process takes time and an attention to detail. Todays car designers use every tool, application, and technology imaginable to achieve the ultimate product for consumers to enjoy and use every day. Read More…

All design agencies want to see a decent proof. Although soft or on-screen proofing is getting more popular for larger agencies and some agencies are actually even replacing hard proofs with soft proofs, a smaller agency like ours rely on good accurate hard proofs. We believe in proofing from early in the conceptual stage all the way to final press check.

Accomplishing this requires a good system for proofing. We use the HP Designjet Z3100PS and Designjet 130 and 90 to accomplish these tasks. Our designers comp on HP Proofing Matte Paper and print through the EFI Designer Edition RIP starting in the early stages of design. When we need a better proof we use the Semi-Gloss Contract Proofing Paper. So far this has been acceptable, however we are always looking for a better proof.

For those of you who love technical jargon keep reading. For those of you who do not skip this paragraph. I describe our work-flow as “late binding” meaning we design in RGB and soft-proof then convert to device CMYK. Say we are designing a direct mail piece that will be printed at Modern Postcard. We download the latest press profiles from the color section of the MP website and install. Of course all of our displays are calibrated and to D65, Gamma 2.2, and 120 CD/M2 and profiled. When we are happy with the soft-proof conversion to CMYK, we convert images in PS then place the tiffs into Illustrator using the Modern Postcard profile as the working space. If we create colors in Illustrator CS3 we create them using the Modern Postcard profile as the working space. When we are ready, we build a PDFX-3 setting the working space as the ‘Output Intent’. We then proof to our Designjet Z3100PS by uploading the PDF into our Embedded Web Server. The results are pretty much what we get when we receive the final printed piece from Modern Postcard.

In-House Proofing is key for our small agency, when we present a comp to a client we make sure the color and content is proofed from the beginning so there are no surprises. Also, this allows the creative team to look at the actual color that the client will most likely experience. This gives everyone confidence in the design process and gives the creative team a tangible product from the initial design. With a good press profile and an in-house proofing system we can do this with ease.

The AIGA chapter of San Diego announces COLORWORKS, a one day symposium on color theory, trends, and branding. The event is 9am - 4pm at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at USD on Saturday February 23, 2008. Read More…

X-Rite Incorporated launched a 24 city seminar tour starting March 18th in Miami and Minneapolis. The seminar series named Color Control Freak is sponsored by HP, X-Rite, Pantone, and Eizo. Read More…

It was freezing cold in Grand Rapids this last week. I have never been so cold. But then again, I am used to San Diego weather where if it rains for more than a few centimeters it makes major news.

I meet with fellow color freaks Mark Gundlach and Phil Nelson. We went over the new 08 seminar materials and I must say I am excited to present this years content. It’s a little different than years past with some added material from Pantone. Read More…

PPI stands for Pixels Per Inch. DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. I see lots of articles and user interfaces and hear lots of people talk about DPI and PPI in the wrong manner. 300 PPI means the digital file has 300 pixels per inch, not 300 Dots Per Inch. Pixels are not Dots and Dots are not pixels. Pixels are square, Dots are usually roundish. Why is it we call pixels dots and dots pixels?

There will come a day when most of our OS, applications, devices, and browser experiences are color managed. Right now, we are close in some respects but still pretty far in other respects.

If you read my prior post on browser compatibility, you found out that with respect to images, they should be embedded with sRGB, but that only helps if your viewing the images on a browser that supports embedded profiles (otherwise the display profile is used as source). Let’s say we were talking about non image elements, like gray backgrounds or orange headers. How should those elements be color managed, especially if your designer is using Photoshop for conceptual layout?

If the web designer uses sRGB as the “Working Space” as he/she is supposed to do, what happens at the level of the Web Producer. The Web Producer does the splicing of the PS file and makes PNG or GIF files out of the individual elements or he codes directly the hex values into CSS. However, one can not embed a color profile into a PNG or GIF. This is where CSS3 comes in.

CSS3 will allow the Web Producer to set the color profile for the entire coded page, in this case sRGB. That way when the designer and the producer compare the published beta site and the Photoshop preview the two match (of course right now only in Safari).It will be great day when all modern browsers use embedded profiles and CSS3 becomes a common standard. If your looking for a fantastic tutorial on the subject check out gballard.net.

Los Angeles Foundation on Aging came to encompus as a new organization looking to gain a visual representation of its mission, which is to improve the quality of life for older adults and their families in the City of Los Angeles. encompus designed and developed their logo, identity system, and a vibrant Website which was just launched.