Creating Page Layouts with Color-Managed Elements

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Creating documents often involve a variety of elements, including images, artwork, and text. Each of these may have its own color source and color space. For example, a page may contain images from a scanner (in RGB or CMYK), images from a digital camera, artwork in EPS format that is typically in CMYK, and a number of colors defined in the application that can be in RGB or CMYK or a named color space such as PANTONE.

When you're building pages, it's important that each element be accurately tagged with the source of the color data another reason why embedding profiles is key.

In this section, we'll build a page in QuarkXPress using several elements, ensuring all the while that each is properly color managed.

Placing Images on the Page

Placing digital images onto a page layout with color management is relatively easy to do especially if you've implemented color management in your image-editing application. In this exercise, we'll add an image to a QuarkXPress document.

1.

Launch QuarkXPress, if it is not already open.

2.

Choose File > Open, and navigate to and open Sample Layout.qxp, located in Windows XP Color Management Project Files > Chapter 8. (You should have already downloaded the project files from the book's Web site to this folder on your hard drive.)


Figure 8.18.


3.

Click the picture box labeled Image 1-Tulip.tif.


Figure 8.19.


4.

Choose File > Get Picture.


Figure 8.20.


5.

In the Get Picture dialog box, navigate to Windows XP Color Management Project Files > Chapter 8 on your hard drive and select the Tulips.tif file. When you select an image to place in a picture box, the Get Picture dialog box displays information about it.


Figure 8.21.


For example, the Profile drop-down menu indicates whether the image contains an embedded profile, as is the case with Tulips.tif. (It unfortunately does not identify which profile is embedded.) If you want to change the source profile for the image, select a profile from the Profile drop-down menu.

The Rendering Intent field indicates the default rendering intent setting, which we assigned in the Quark CMS Preferences dialog box. You can change this selection by choosing a different rendering intent from the drop-down menu.

The Color Manage to RGB Destinations option is checked because we checked it in the Quark CMS Preferences. The Get Picture dialog box lets you disable this command on a per-image basis, but we want to leave it checked.

6.

Click Open to place the image on the page.


Figure 8.22.


7.

Now add another image by clicking the picture box that is lower on the QuarkXPress page, labeled Image 2 -Leaves_untagged.jpg, and choose File > Get Picture.

8.

In the Get Picture dialog box, select the file Leaves_untagged.jpg, located in Windows XP Color Management Project Files > Chapter 8 on your hard drive.


Figure 8.23.


The Leaves_untagged.jpg image does not contain an embedded profile, so QuarkXPress assigns the default profile we designated in the Quark CMS Preferences dialog box: Adobe RGB (1998).

If you are opening an untagged image and either know the source color space or wish to change the selected profile to something other than the preference, click the Profile drop-down menu and select a different profile.

9.

Click Open to place the image on the page.


Figure 8.24.


The onscreen representations of the images we've placed in the docu-ment have been adjusted according to the settings in the Quark CMS Preferences dialog box. The profile embedded in the Tulips.tif image determines the source of the data, while the settings designated in the Quark CMS Preferences dialog box determine the profile used for the Leaves_untagged.jpg image. The Display Simulation option, which we have set to Monitor Color Space, instructs QuarkXPress to transform any spot colors from their source color spaces to the display color space (set by the Monitor Destination Profile preference) to accurately display them.

Viewing Image Profile Information and Assigning Spot Colors

QuarkXPress provides the ability to assign each element on the page with a unique source profile. This source profile is used to convert to a destination profile for printing and proofing. In this exercise, we'll learn how to view and apply profiles to images and to objects created in QuarkXPress.

1.

From the main menu, choose Window > Show Profile Information.


Figure 8.25.


The Profile Information window appears.


Figure 8.26.


2.

Using a selection tool, click the Leaves_untagged.jpg image on the page.

The Profile Information window displays the profile information for the selected image.


Figure 8.27.


The Profile drop-down menu identifies the profile for the selected image. In this case, Default is selected, because the image does not contain an embedded profile, and Quark has assigned the default profile we selected in the Quark CMS Preferences dialog box. You can change the source profile for the image, as well as the rendering intent, if you need to.

3.

Using a selection tool, click the Tulips.tif image on the page.

The Show Profile Information window displays the profile information for this image.


Figure 8.28.


The Profile drop-down menu again identifies the profile for the selected image. In this case, Embedded is selected because the image contains an embedded profile, so Quark CMS will use the embedded profile as the source color space for this image.

Note

If Show Colors isn't visible in the Window menu, but instead you see Hide Colors, then the Colors palette is already open. Release the mouse without toggling the palette off.

4.

Choose Window > Show Colors.


Figure 8.29.


5.

Select the Image Tulips.tif text box. In the Colors palette, select the Fill button (the empty rectangle) and ensure that Solid is displayed in the pop-up menu. Then select a color to fill the text box with I've selected blue in the following example.


Figure 8.30.


6.

Repeat Step 4 for the Image 2-Leaves_untagged.jpg text box, choosing Magenta to fill the text box.


Figure 8.31.


The colors that you've selected in the Colors palette are adjusted on the screen based on the settings in the Quark CMS Preferences dialog box. The RGB and CMYK Default Source Profile settings determine the source of the data for the blue and magenta selections, respectively, while the Monitor Destination Profile setting determines the display profile. The Display Simulation option, which is set to Monitor Color Space, instructs QuarkXPress to transform the spot colors from their source color spaces to the display color space.

7.

To see the effects of the Display Simulation setting, in the Quark CMS Preferences dialog box toggle the Display Simulation check box on and off.

Placing Artwork on the Page

Most documents designed in a page layout application will contain artwork created in drawing applications such as Adobe Illustrator. These files require a different color management workflow than images do.

1.

Click the picture box labeled Logo.eps and choose File > Get Picture.

2.

Navigate to and select the file Logo.eps, located in the Windows XP Color Management Project Files > Chapter 8 folder on your hard drive.


Figure 8.32.


Notice that the entire Color Management area of the dialog box is dimmed, and that the Profile drop-down menu reads None. QuarkXPress supports source color spaces only for images, not for vector artwork, including EPS files. EPS files should have a source profile embedded in them when they're saved from Adobe Illustrator (see Chapter 7). When it comes time to print, Quark CMS will convert the EPS file from the source color space to the destination space set by the embedded profile.

3.

Click Open to place the logo on the page.

4.

Save the document to your hard drive. We use it again in the next exercise.

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    Microsoft Windows XP Color Management
    Microsoft Windows XP Color Management
    ISBN: 0321334272
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 103

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