Color Management System (CMS) in PageMaker Software

Color Management System (CMS) in PageMaker software

 PageMaker is a suite of software that supports two International Color Consortium (ICC) compliant systems: the Kodak color management system on Macintosh and Windows platforms and the Color Sync 2.x standard on Macintosh platforms.

PageMaker's color management system can manage the colors applied to PageMaker objects, the colors in RGB bitmap images and the special colors of EPS files, and can perform color management on the RGB screen image of a CMYK TIFF file, so that it can be output to color mixing and proofing equipment. The color is corrected and can also be changed to a CMYK TIFF target official output device. Color management is not available for DCS, WMF, PICT files.

1. Open and close control of PageMaker color management system (CMS)

  1. Open the color management system

Open the CMS when using PageMaker, and the system will perform corresponding spatial changes and transmissions on the transmitted color information in various links such as input, display, color separation and printing, so as to minimize color distortion. When opening the CMS, other CMS systems should be closed, otherwise there will be confusing results.

(1) Select "File / Custom Format / General".

(2) Click "CMS Settings (CMSPreferences)".

(3) Select "Open" from the "Color Management" drop-down menu.

(4) Click "OK" to open the color management system.

2. Turn off the color management system

(1) Turn off the color management system as a whole

A. The color management system can be turned off as a whole in the following cases:

①Do not use bitmap images in publications but only use special colors.

②Only use CMYK color images that have been color-separated.

③The import only includes graphics in the form of DCS files and EPS files that only contain process colors.

④Use a post-processing application to create color separations for publications.

B. Steps to shut down the color management system as a whole:

①Select the "File/Custom/General" command.

②Click the "CMS Settings" button.

③Select "Off" from the "Color Management" drop-down menu.

④Click the "OK" button.

(2) Partially close the color management system

When you don't want to manage the color of a special image, you can turn off the color management of the image file, allowing the color information of the file to pass through the CMS without changing. The color information is still useful for the output device, but it is not managed by PageMaker's CMS.

A. The color management system can be partially turned off in the following cases:

① A CMYK TIFF image file created in an image processing software, such as Photoshop, and directed to a formal output device.

②The images are color-separated according to the characteristics of the orientation equipment, and only low-resolution images are used to set the layout and orientation.

B. Steps to partially turn off the color management system:

①Select an image.

②Select "Component/Image/CMS Source".

③Select "None" from the "This Item Uses" drop-down menu.

2. Setting of PageMaker Color Management System (CMS)

Select the "File / Custom Format / General" command and click the "CMS Settings" button to display the CMS Settings interface (CMS Preferences).

  1. "Color Management". This item is used to determine whether the color management system is on (select On) or off (select Off). If Kodak CMS is turned on when using PageMaker, the system will perform corresponding spatial changes and transfer of the transmitted color information in various links such as input, display, color separation and printing, so as to minimize color distortion.

  2. "Monitor Emulation". This item is used to open the soft proofing function in the color management, so that the output effect of the color separation file can be displayed on the screen. There are "None" and "Composite Printer". Options such as Color Separation Printer.

3. "New Project Use". This is used to determine which color management system to choose. There are options like "None", "Kodak CMS (ICC)", "ColorCync", etc.

4. "Kodak CMS (ICC) Settings".

(1) "Display" option. Select the device profile that matches the display type;

(2) "Composite Printer" option. Select the device profile that matches the output device (multiplexer) used for color mixing output;

(3) "Color Separation Printer" option. Select the device profile that matches the output device (separation printer) used to create the color separations;

(4) "RGB image source" option. Select the device profile used to create the RGB color image;

(5) "CMYK image source" option. Select the device profile used to create CMYK color images.

The device feature description file set here will be automatically applied to all file objects created by itself as the default file of the system.

Third, the control function of PageMaker color management system (CMS)

Due to the use of an embedded structure, PageMaker itself only provides a specific operation method for color management. The main layer is to set and manage the device feature files for the colors in the two different processing objects of graphic text and color images. And color separation management of color images.

1. Coloring graphics texts to define their device characteristics with colors

There are two aspects to color-defining device characteristics for shading: manually setting new colors and letting Color Management (CMS) automatically assign device characteristics to new colors.

(1) Manually set device characteristics for new colors

①Select "Window/Display Color Palette".

②Select "Add Color" from the color palette.

③In the "Color Options" dialog box, you must enter a name for "Name".

a. Select the color you need by selecting the "category" (special color, process color, talk color), "pattern" (RGB, HLS, CMYK) and color value through the inner color;

b. Choose a color from a predefined Color Library.

④In the "Color Options" dialog box, click "CMS Source".

⑤Select the color device characteristics (source profile) according to the following guidelines:

a. If you intend to create an RGB color, the device profile selected for the color should be consistent with the device profile of the user's monitor;

b. If you intend to create a CMYK color, the device profile selected for the color should be consistent with the device profile of the user's "separation printer".

⑥Click "OK" to return to the "Color Picking Options" dialog box.

⑦Click "OK".

This completes the process of defining the characteristics of a color device with colors for shading.

(2) Let color management (CMS) automatically assign device characteristics to new colors

①Choose "File / Custom Format / General", and then click "CMS Settings".

②In the "CMS Custom Format" dialog box, select the color management system from "New Project Use" to set the device profile for the new color.

③In "Monitor Emulation", specify the monitor description file for the newly created RGB color, and specify the "separation printer" device description file for the newly created CMYK color. Selecting "None" will close the newly created color management.

④Click "OK" to exit the "CMS Custom Format" dialog box. Then click OK.

2. Color-to-color images define their device characteristics

Color images can be produced by different sources, such as drawing programs, scanners, etc. If created with a CMS-enabled application, the image contains the device profile for the CMS, specifying the image

The gamut of colors that are produced.

(1) Principles of using source description files when placing image files:

① If the image was created with an application that supports Kodak CMS, the PageMaker application

Kodak CMS source description file.

②If the source description file specified in the image file is not available, PageMaker applies the default CMS to select the default description file.

③If there is no source profile specified in the image file, PageMaker applies the default CMS, and selects the source profile that best matches the image color mode from "RGB Image Source" and "CMYK Image Source".

④If you want to change the device feature file settings determined by PageMaker, you can reset the correct CMS source description file.

⑤ If the placed image needs to be color corrected in an application such as PhotoShop, the source description file should be reset in PageMaker after editing.

(2) Two ways to set color image device feature file

A. Apply Source Profile when placing color images

①Select "File/Place".

②Select the image to be placed, and then click "CMS Source".

③From the "CMS Source Description File" dialog box, select a corresponding device description file.

④Click "OK".

B. Selecting Device Profiles for Colored National Portraits in Publications

①Select a color image, or you can select multiple images by holding down the Shift key.

②Select "Component/Image/CMS Source", you can also choose a different CMS for the image or turn off color management.

③Select a feature file from the "CMS Source Description File" dialog box.

④Click "OK".

3. Pre-separation function for color images

PageMaker can pre-separate color images without having to do it in other software.

(1) Two types of spatial transformations

①Convert the color image files in the RGB space in the composition file into CMYK files according to the specific device feature file relationship.

②Locate a CMYK TIFF image to another CMYK output device.

(2) Several situations in which pre-separation processing is required for the assembled image

① Carry out CMYK color separation printing.

② Further processing of publications does not support special color management.

③Create a CMYK image and keep it on the OPI server.

④Do not correct the image in RGB color space.

(3) Operation method of image pre-separation processing

①Select the image to be color-separated.

②Choose "File/Export/Graphics", and select "Save as" in the "Output Image" dialog box.

color separation".

③ Enter the name of a color separation file, and select the folder to save the file.

④Click "Settings" to select a screen preview option.

"Don't be in the image" will not produce a low-resolution screen preview representation of the image;

"Best" will produce a screen preview representation of the original image at 72 dpi;

"Draft" will produce a screen preview representation of the original image at 36dpi resolution

⑤Select "Link to New Image".

⑥Click "Save".

4. Change the output device description file before printing

From the Print dialog you can change the device description file for the selected Color Mixer or Separation Printer. Before printing on a different output device, the device description file in "CMS Custom Format" should be changed to match the output device.

For best results when using color management, do not change the device description file of the "separation printer". The choice of color mapping is usually based on the device description file of the "separation printer", and changing the device description file of the "separation printer" later in the color management process may not give the best results.

Steps to change the user's output device description file before printing:

①Select "File/Print". If printing on a PostScript printer, select the appropriate PPD for the output device.

②Click "Color".

③Click "CMS Settings".

④Select the device description file of "color mixing printer" or "color separation printer".

⑤Click "OK".

⑥Select one of the following options:

*Select any additional print options and click Print.

* Hold down the Shift key and click Done to save the new settings without printing.