Here's what one poster advised:

Christine Holzmann - 08:49pm Nov 20, 2002 Pacific (#3 of 11) Edited: 20-Nov-2002 at 08:51pm PST

I shall share my settings with you.....I have been getting excellent color for the last 5 years. These settings are for PS 5 and upwards, and are from lots of research. For my dot gain, I use curves...as per Dan Margulis' recommendations. Please note that as per your particular press, you may need to adjust the TAC (total ink coverage) and dot gain slightly until you are able to achieve in your color what is perfect for you.
For your ink colors, select Custom CMYK, then select SWOP (Newsprint) as a starting point for your ink colors.
In Dot Gain, use 30%....type this in and then select curves. At the 50% point in Cyan, change this to 80%
At the 50% point in Magenta, change this to 80%
At the 50% point in Yellow, change this to 78%
At the 50% point in Black, change this to 84%.

Use UCR for your separation type.....for newsprint, the "skeleton black" on the black plate that is achieved with UCR is much better than what you would get with GCR...using GCR tends to tends to result in "muddier" color on newsprint.

For Black ink limit, use 80%.
For Total Ink Limit, use between 240% and 270%.....this is where you need to see what works best for you. Most newsprint runs best at 240, but I found that it produced color that was much too washed out for me. I have been running at 260% for the last 5 years but just recently changed to 270%.

For your dot gain, you also need to experiment......see what settings work best for you from 28% to 34%. I would start at 30% and work from there as I recommended above.
Depending on what dot gain you use, here is how you would determine what settings to use in the curves dialogue box at the 50% point:
Cyan=your standard dot gain setting + 50
(e.g. 30+50=80.....80 is what you input at the 50% point) Magenta=your standard dot gain setting + 50
(e.g. 30+50=80....80 is what you input at the 50% point) Yellow=(your standard dot gain setting + 50)-2
(e.g. (30+50)-2=78...78 is what you input at the 50% point) Black=your standard dot gain setting + 50 + 4
(e.g. 30+50+4=84...84 is what you input at the 50% point)

If your standard dot gain is 28%, then:
Cyan=your standard dot gain setting + 50
(e.g. 28+50=78)
Thus...input 78 at the 50% point in Cyan
Magenta=your standard dot gain setting + 50
(e.g. 28+50=78)
Thus...input 78 at the 50% point in Magenta
Yellow=(your standard dot gain setting + 50)-2
(e.g. (28+50)-2=76)
Thus...input 76 at the 50% point in Yellow
Black=your standard dot gain setting + 50 + 4
(e.g. 28+50+4=82)
Thus...input 82 at the 50% point in Black

In general, if your color is coming out too dark, increase the dot gain and decrease the total ink limit.
On the other hand, if your color is coming out too light or too washed out, decrease the dot gain and increase the total ink limit.

I REALLY hope this has made sense:)) I know my explanations of the settings for the dot gain curves is somewhat confusing....but I tried my best:) If you are VERY confused, I really don't mind sending you Dan Margulis' explanation of it in much more detail. If the dot gain curves is much too confusing for you, just use standard and leave it at that...experiment between 28% to 34%. (20% as you mentioned in your thread is good for magazines but NOT for newsprint...will be much too dark!!)

For doing the color correction....I usually set highlights, shadows and neutral midpoint in RGB and then do the remainder of my corrections in CMYK......changes with curves, final sharpening, etc. all in CMYK.
But each and everyone to their own personal preferences here of course:)

Inger_Edgar

Replied in the following topics

Printing to Newsprint