On the Color Management Practice of Digital Proofing of Art Works

1 Foreword

For works of art, color is an important carrier for the transmission of artistic information. Proper colors can map out the "connotation" of works. How to truly reflect the color of works of art in proofing works is a question worthy of serious discussion. The emergence of color management and digital proofing technology provides a new and important way for the correct transmission and control of color.

Based on analyzing and configuring the hardware and software related to color management and digital proofing, we performed typical color management on related scanners, digital cameras, monitors, and printers. Digital proofing software was used to initially practice such works as posters, packaging design drafts, and advertising design samples. On the basis of restoring the color of the artwork as far as possible, it fully reflects the author's design concept and achieves a perfect color reproduction effect.

2 Color of artwork

As we all know, different forms of works of art (mainly paintings) are very particular about color composition, color structure and color composition, using color to shape the body, the performance of space and texture. The effect of the color of an artwork depends on whether the composition of the color is reasonable and expressive. Its color can be divided into two steps, starting with a layer of color selection in order to be fully developed by a large range of simultaneous coloring to form an overall tone. Then, according to the structure of the body, the light-receiving portion is proposed with a bright color, the backlight portion and the shadow are pressed with a dark color, and the physical appearance and the overall spatial level are expressed using the color change. The art works consist of layers of various color layers. The space in the artwork represents the ups and downs of permeation through the order of color, warmth, warmth, advancing and retreating, strength and weakness, light and darkness, and shade, and reveals tune-color characteristics.

The color characteristics of works of art differ from other works. Taking oil paintings and watercolors as an example, oil painting emphasizes the accumulation of pigments and has a strong contrast of colors. The ever-changing colors and colorful colors can be observed from the strokes. Dark colors are dark but not dark, light and bright but not thin. Most pictures are dominated by mixed colors. Color features are rich in color, subtle coordination, clear and accurate, strong contrast, rich changes. The watercolors are unique in color and use the taste of water to show shades and transparency of the shades. The watercolor style is divided into light and strong colors. Intense color is the use of color changes to show the object's image, light changes, the perspective of the scene and the artistic atmosphere of the entire picture. Light color is based on a pencil sketch, with a few light and flowing colors.

The uncertainty of the composition of the color of the artwork may sometimes determine the content or style of the artwork. Therefore, color as one of the forms of works of art has become a major part of the work.

3 Specific practice exploration

3.1 About Color Management and Digital Proofing Configuration

According to the technical requirements of the color management, the famous Swiss GretagMacbeth product is used, which includes a Spectrolino meter for correcting a display, a printer, a scanner, a digital camera, and a Spectroscan T that can measure ICC characteristic data of a transmitted original and can form a characterization file. ProfileMaker V4.0PRO. Digital proofing software uses Bestcolor Screenproof software from Best, Germany. Digital proofing machine uses Epson Pro 9600 color inkjet printer, the accuracy of 2880 × 1440dpi, seven-color ink cartridges, larger color gamut, suitable for high-quality digital proofing needs. In addition, SpectroEye basic version spectrophotometer from GretagMacbeth, Switzerland and GTI PDV-2F/D standard light source from USA are also used for color accuracy. The input device scanner uses the MicroTek Antixscan 1800f. From a theoretical point of view, this system configuration has the characteristics of reasonable structure, high stability, good openness, good compatibility and scalability.

3.2 About the color management of artistic works

The importance of color management is to ensure the accuracy and stability of color reproduction. The color management of works of art must first emphasize the correction of equipment (including scanners, digital cameras, monitors, printers). Such as the correction of the display, including color temperature, working color space, display gamma, white and black spots, display contrast and so on. We use the Spectrolino instrument with the color management suite Profile Bundle PRO to calibrate the monitor to obtain the gray balance of the monitor's color temperature and RGB three colors.

Second, the color management of artistic works must obtain three basic profiles. We use the Spectroscan T and profileMaker V4.0PRO to form a profile file of the ink characteristics of the print paper, a profile file that reflects print characteristics, and a print ICCProfile file that has undergone color space conversion and correction. For scanners, ICC profiles need to be placed in the scanned image, which will save color matching conversion time and produce better saved image data.

Again, due to the replacement, update, or aging of equipment, the standard parameters or characteristic profiles of the equipment must be regularly adjusted.

Finally, because different devices have different color management standards, sometimes it is necessary to combine software such as Photoshop to perform color correction of the artwork, and to reasonably set and adjust parameters such as gray balance, tone contrast, sharpness and other parameters from a technical point of view. The angle properly handles the relationship between the color tone, saturation, spatial distance, light and darkness changes, etc., so as to make the color of the art work as realistic as possible.

3.3 Digital Proofing on Art Works

Due to the different color gamuts of color printers, different papers and inks also have different color gamuts. Art works printed on the Epson Pro9600 seven-color inkjet printer sometimes also have color matching problems. The reason is that due to the inaccuracy of the gray balance and the inaccurate conversion of the color space during the color space conversion. Therefore, before digital proofing, let the printer print out the IT8 standard color scale, measure the chromaticity value Lab of 928 color patches with the Spectroscan T, generate the proofed ICC profile file with the Best color digital proofing software, and then draw a digital proofing color space. The printability of the ICC profile file is entered into the proofing software for preliminary correction. If it is not ideal, you need to further edit and modify the ICC profile file.

For the digital proofing of works of art, it is worth noting that while demanding vivid colors (that is, "likeness"), it is also required to be as "likeness-like" as possible so that artistic works can be fully and accurately expressed and expressed.

Source: "Printing World"