Working with Color on the Computer

Color surrounds us. Now, surround yourself with the tools you need to get the color right in your desktop publishing.

Color Matching & ICC Profiles
One of the biggest color challenges, other than choosing colors, is making sure that the color we print is the same color we see in a photograph or on-screen. There are several ways to accomplish this from entry-level point and click software to professional calibration software and hardware devices for color management systems. CMS versions exist for all skill levels and in many price ranges.

The CMS for your computer uses a type of file called an ICC profile for each device to create consistent color between what you scan, what you see on screen, and what you print. ICC profiles contain information about how that device produces color. These files are specific to each digital camera, scanner, monitor, or printer on your system. Images can have embedded profiles also that describe how the image color displays.

Generic ICC profiles are not device-specific, but are based on a group of similar devices. In some cases, these generic ICC profiles produce acceptable color. Modifying and tweaking the file for a device under specific conditions creates a custom ICC profile.

Many programs such as Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXPress ship with and install generic ICC profiles. Color Management software and hardware devices allow you to create and manage custom color profiles tweaked for specific devices and working conditions.

Learn how to use color management tools, including ICC profiles, to calibrate your computer to show you consistent color in print and on-screen:

1. Calibrate Your Monitor
2. Calibrate Your Printer
3. Calibrate Your Scanner
4. Calibrate Your Digital Camera

Color Guides
Find the perfect color for your project and make sure you get the color you want with PANTONE Color Guides. Known as swatch books, Pantone has a huge variety of these color guides for any need. Use the swatches and color chips not only to pick a color, but to find the proper Pantone color number or the CMYK or RGB values of colors you need to match.

The Guide you need depends on the type of work you do. You may want multiple guide books. Guides for solid and process colors, solid to process, metallic, pastel, foil stamping, colors on coated, uncoated, and matte finishes cover most print color needs.

Choose the PANTONE Color Guide you need:

1. Before You Buy Swatch Books
2. Current PANTONE Guides for Print
3. Combination Guides
4. Process Color Guides
5. Spot Color Guides

Web Colors
Color appears differently on the Web than on-screen but at least when specifying screen colors it's easier to judge the appearance. However, even Web colors can appear differently from one monitor and browser combination to the next. Browser-safe colors are one way to help insure near-consistent color appearance. Color Lookup Tables (CLUT) are a tool for selecting browser-safe colors. The CLUT is a color palette file that works with your graphics software to help you choose appropriate browser-safe colors when creating Web graphics.

1. Using Browser Safe Colors
2. Color Lookup Tables and Web Color Selectors

Whether on-screen or in print, use these color tools to help insure that you are displaying and printing the intended color.