Hey Guys
Version using: Photoshop CS
If I have been told that there will be 34% dot gain and i am in the edit/color settings dialog box in the gray dot gain settings (its a grayscale image)do i add 34% to the 50 box for a total of 84% where now it says 70? or do i put 34% in the box where it is 70% now? Im royally confused.
Thanks for any help guys
Samuel
#1
You need to ask your printer about that.
And you shouldn't be using the old custom CMYK engine anyway - get an ICC profile for your printer's press conditions.
#2
Sounds like newsprint. Choose 30%. You can create a custom CMYK profile by choosing custom CMYK, then choose the "SWOP" newsprint option, it will also assign 30%.
#3
If you're in the Custom Grayscale dialog box, then you want to type 84 in the 50 percent box. That will give you 34 percent dot gain at the fifty percent level. There's no real need for grayscale images only to make an ICC profile. It's just grayscale. If you want to get fancy, you can have someone with a densitometer give you the exact values to plug in for every box in the Custom Grayscale setup, but for most applications, the single figure is close enough.
Until the print world catches up, and it ain't going to anytime soon, the chances of finding a printer who has good quality profiles for their press or proofing system is next to nothing, so just telling someone to just "get an ICC profile for the press" is not going to be much help. So far, for the record, I've only found three in all of So. California who have any sort of clue regarding profiles, George Rice & Sons, Primary Color and Modern Postcard. They're the excepting, not the rule. Having a printer give you the dot gain spec for their grayscale is all you need for this job.
#4
Thanks Peter so much!!
That completely answers my question and just in time my head was about to explode ; )
Thnks to the others that replied as well!
#5