RE: RGB vs CMYK: gamut and some important notes for CMYK users

"your job, should you choose to accept it, is
to teach them how to tune in the other frequencies"

I've tried, and apparently I lack the required wit and tact necessary to
convey the importance of these options. It's an age-old understanding that
you get what you pay for, and so if you don't pay anything you ain't getting
anything. So keep an eye open for my $100 spiral-bound book and $900
workshop.

Seriously, we are people that can perform all sorts of alchemy with acids
and carcinogenic salts. People here fret over all sorts of arcane issues
involving paper, sizes, and the ph of water. But those CMYK settings? Too
complicated, I suppose. It really doesn't matter in the long run. I still
contend that the wide tolerances introduced by the other components of gum
printing, from brands of paper and pigment and gum to light source and water
temperature, all will likely obscure any differences in color space. But to
argue about difference between CMYK and RGB without even knowing what CMYK
is? That's just plain silly.

-----Original Message-----
From: Katharine Thayer [mailto:kthayer@pacifier.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2004 9:22 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: RGB vs CMYK: gamut and some important notes for CMYK users

Keith Gerling wrote:
>

> 2) The "default" CMYK settings, which apparently are so precious to some
> users, are not the best to use for capturing all data.

Keith,
I'd say this differently; I wouldn't say that the default CMYK settings
are "precious" to those who make default CMYK separations; rather I
would guess that many people who use the default CMYK for color
separations may not even be aware that there are settings that determine
what their separations look like. After all, teachers and writers often
advise people to simply convert to CMYK and click on Print Separations,
without going into what CMYK profiles are or what the settings are or
what the assumptions are that underlie the default settings, and I would
guess that in most cases the teachers and writers don't convey that
information because they don't know it themselves. So unless people are
heavy into CMYK for reasons of digital printing etc, they might not know
that there are other stations to listen to, much less how to tune them
in. My recent goal has been to awaken them to the assumptions that
underlie the default CMYK; your job, should you choose to accept it, is
to teach them how to tune in the other frequencies.
Katharine
Received on Sat Dec 4 21:56:23 2004