Re: CMYK separations on Adobe Photoshop

Joe Smigiel wrote:
>

>
> I don't believe I ever said the colors would be "weird, brownish,
> distorted colors". I said there would be some distortion and that they
> would be less accurate. (And note that I'm not even running for
> political office here.) I know of no other actual print test evidence
> to the contrary but, I'm eager to see it.

Sorry, didn't mean to put words in your mouth, but you did say that the
colors from RGB would be distorted, and pointed to this example that was
all brown and weird, so I inferred that you were making a general
statement that this brown weird distortion could be expected when
printing color separations from RGB files. Apparently I overinferred; I
apologize for that.
 
> So, would you please cite a few of the several other examples of gum
> printers using this method for me? I'd like to see their work. I'm
> aware that Christine Anderson, Phil Davis, and Sam Wang also use the RGB
> method. Christine and Sam apparently do combination prints using a
> cyanotype layer with gum. I'm not sure I would consider their work to
> have "accurate" colors although certainly beautiful and interpretive
> ones.

Actually I wasn't including Chris in that group, because hers, at least
the ones on unblinkingeye, do have a distinct brown cast, which I think
looks nice with her work but I wouldn't call a true color balance by any
means. (The ones on the traveling portfolio have truer colors, to my
eye). I think, and have said before, that the brown cast in hers is
related to pigment choice and isn't inherent to RGB.

But if we're going to start higgling about what's accurate and what's
interpretive, count me out, because I don't think it's a question that
could ever reach closure. To my eye, the colors on your CMY and CMYK
examples seem artifical, but that's just my eye and I'm not insisting on
it. I think we're in agreement on one thing, that RGB and CMYK will be
different; I think we'll have to agree to disagree about which is the
more accurate color space as far as being true to the original color
information. As for my own work, I certainly wouldn't insist that my
colors are true in some kind of pre-press meaning of color accuracy; I
often said that I don't run a print shop and so I don't feel required to
abide by the rules of commercial printing. My point here was only that
RGB doesn't necessarily produce this brown weirdness that you showed,
and it sounds like you didn't mean to imply that it does, in which case
there's no argument.

Katharine
Received on Sun Oct 31 19:12:02 2004