Can’t say for sure, however, I know to get the individual Lab channels to display correctly you need to set the Gray color space to Gamma 2.2. Not great if you’re going to Press, but it works. Perhaps Gamma 2.2 or some other setting will work for you. Let us know.
P.S. I consider this a glitch (maybe bug is too strong a word) that has existed in Photoshop at least since 6.0.
Gama is set to 2.2 Sorry I didnt add that before. And yes, it is a glitch if you will since 6.0 which is the reason we have not moved on from 5.5. but now we are dangerously close to our IT dept. upgrading all our computers. For some reason they do not want us to run classic environment anymore. Perhaps classic is being phased out?
brianpoole-
Just to confirm: Your GRAY COLOR SPACE setting is set to Gray Gamma 2.2, correct? Just checking since this setting does affect the Lab Channels view.
Just double checked the settings, and yes, we use Gray Gamma 2.2 and have since PS 5.5. This is frustrating to say the least. The closest I have been able to come up with is NTSC 1953 for RGB settings. CMYK Swop Uncoated 32%, Gamma 2.2 and a custom Dot gain of 80%-85%. Then coloring a channel to Black and setting as spot color. ALL lighter colors are then displaying WAY too much information. Worsens to set them as spot channel. All the channels turned on, the image now is extremely washed out.
For some reason they do not want us to run classic environment anymore. Perhaps classic is being phased out?
Well OS9 did die back about 5 years ago. Apple was nice enough to give us Classic but the new Mactel’s do not support Classic. The final nail in the coffin for OS9.
Sorry I don’t have an answer for your problem maybe Chris Cox can comment.
Yes, I hope someone can help. We go off of Alpha Channel visuals about 65% of the time. I could not find anything in tutorials about adjusting color for the Alpha Channel side neither. Someone mentioned that we view Apha Channels in Lab mode. Anyway to adjust that or is it really down to adjusting Gray Dot gain?
I find that loading a custom CMYK color space into the Greyscale color setting works pretty well. Photoshop will use just the black channel in the profile for display for Spots and Alphas.
This also assumes that you have a good monitor profile – and no – Photoshop 5.5 is not as accurate as 9.0 for on screen color.
Like Mike, I almost always have the black gen of a CMYK profile loaded, and it seems to look pretty good. I can’t believe that after 11 years of using PS, I never knew that the GS setting affected how the individual channels viewed. Just one more thing to try and understand.
I agree with you that 9.0 is far superior on the layers side, in RGB, CMYK etc. Far more settings to play with. However, on the channels side, it is a bit akward, at least for us. Here’s a task for anyone. Create an Alpha Channel and fill it with 100% black and also color that channel to black. Next, make another Alpha Channel and do a gradation from 0% to 100% and color that channel to white. You will notice that you are able to see 2%-3% information. Using the color picker tool on the greyscaled area will give you the correct % value. but the "look" of it is completely off. 2% or 3% looks more like 30% to 40%. This was never the case in 5.5. What am I missing here?
What you are missing is the behavior of the open source archecture of color management – color spaces and how it interacts with channels.
You need to read up on color management.
PS 6.0 and up was a huge jump in thinking.
Perhaps Im not explaining myself correctly. However, anyone in this forum that uses PS for greyscaled color separations with heavy inks for silk screen should know exactly what I mean and the frustrations. Not having to turn alpha channels to spot etc. Also, what happened to the monitor compensation option? If we are now given options, where has that been relocated? I’ll go back to my original question? Does anyone know what the settings are to emulate 5.5 apha channel dot gains, properties etc.? Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of time to read up on color management mostly pertaining to paper pre-press issues. Thanks everyone for your input. it is appreciated.
Brian,
I work in prepress.
You HAVE to read up on it. Color Management.
you’ll NEVER get the exact simulation.
You are looking at a shitty preview in 5.5
You need to let go.
mo
After further reasearch, seems the rest of the silk screen industry are all in the same boat! Everyone agrees the on screen preview in 5.5 for Alpha Channels was absolutely accurate. Apparently, Adobe decideded to change the Alpha Channels algorithms in 6.0 and up! NO color settings will be able to "fix" the problem.
Question, anyone out there in the silk screen industry found a plugin of some sort for alpha channel algorithm on screen preview? Basically, taking us back to 5.5 for on screen accurate previews, values of grey etc.
Manual separations is completely different than pre-press. Thus the harsh words from the above Crayola do not apply here. Thanks for helping with your vast knowledge of pre-press, but doesnt apply for us in the heavy inks world.
Time is running out for our industry with classic environment.
Thanks in advance!
Brian
