You Will Learn

• The fundamentals of color management including terminology, requirements, and the components needed for success
• How to implement color management workflow for your design or production environment
• The best practices for building and using ICC profiles in your graphic design applications to get the best color
• How to evaluate the components in color workflow and resolve problems to achieve color success
• How to leverage color management to save time, reduce rework, print more predictable and accurate color, and streamline your workflow

Who Should Attend

• Anyone involved with color throughout the lifecycle of a printed job
• Salespeople and CSRs who want a better understanding of color to improve communication with their internal and external customers
• Brand owners who want to protect brand color accuracy and consistency
• Designers who want to communicate color more effectively with their printers/customers and produce outstanding color
• Prepress professionals who want a deeper understanding of color management techniques
• Anyone who wants to print accurate, consistent color!

Format

20 Color Ready! sessions will be released over two days and presented as 20-minute, tutorial-style sessions. Attendees can participate from the comfort of their office, with access to video sessions via their computer or tablet. Specific login instructions will be provided upon registration. Registration will continue to be open through August 31, 2021, and all registered attendees will have access to all Color Ready! recordings until August 31, 2021.

Day 1 Sessions

Color Overview: It All Starts Here!

Presented by Don Hutcheson, President, HutchColor, LLC

So, you're ready to get started with or learn more about color management--excellent! Before you dive in, it's essential to get some basics and understand what color is. In this lesson, you'll get a no-nonsense, practical, and entertaining introduction to color concepts and terminology. Color starts here!

What you'll learn:

• How we perceive color
• Additive versus subtractive color
• How understanding human vision is the basis of color management
• The importance of standardized viewing conditions
• How paper influences color
• Why we can't print every color that we see

Day 2 Sessions

Building Printer Profiles: Your Roadmap to the Right Color

Presented by Ray Weiss, Director of Digital Print Programs, PRINTING United Alliance

Not only do printer profiles deliver the right color on your output device, they're also used to show you--via soft or hard proofing--a prediction of what the color will look like when it's output. Sound good, but this only works if the profile is created correctly. In this lesson, get the blow-by-blow process of building a solid printer profile for color management workflow.

What you'll learn:

• What you need to do before you create a printer profile
• How a printer profile is created
• Where to find them on Windows and MacOS
• How and where printer profiles are used in color management workflow

Color Management Overview: Building Your Foundation

Presented by Dave Hunter, President, ChromaChecker

Color management creates more efficient, consistent, and predictable color across various devices and enables color to be viewed more accurately by everyone in the process. It eliminates problems with rework and communication and creates more accurate and consistent color. The first step to color success is to grasp the fundamentals of color management. This course will cover the principles of color management and how it works--all while giving you a solid foundation of terminology and workflow.

What you'll learn:

• The fundamental problem with color printing
• Color management overview, what it is and what it isn't
• The components of color management
• Color management vocabulary and terminology that you'll hear over and over again
• Color management in action: The 10,000 ft. view

Rendering Intents: Map That Color!

Presented by Presented by Don Hutcheson, President, HutchColor, LLC

An essential part of color management is transforming color accurately from one device or "color space" to another. At this point, color management has to map out-of-gamut colors to the colors that the output device can produce. This can be controlled using rendering intents. In this lesson, learn all about the various rendering intents, how they transform color, and which one to use based on what's being printed.

What you'll learn:

• What a rendering intent is and how it works
• The difference between saturation, perceptual, relative and absolute colorimetric
• Where they are applied in color management workflows
• Using the right rendering intent for the work you're printing
• Best default settings for RIPs and software applications

Designers and Brands: What Can Color Management Can Do for You?

Presented by Ron Ellis, Principal, Ron Ellis Consulting LLC

Successful brands and designers use their understanding of color management to take control of their color. By using their knowledge of color management and supplier capabilities, brands work with suppliers to develop results that they both feel good about. In this lesson, learn how color management can be used to improve quality, increase efficiency, reduce cost, and get the most accurate, predictable color possible. Don't let print control you - take control of your color!

• What you'll learn:
• How brands communicate color
• How to use color management for design intent
• How color management can be used across multiple devices and locations
• How brands check color
• The first thing you need to do to take to control your color

Color Conversion: How and When to Do It

Presented by Marc Levine, Director of Business Development, GMG Americas

Do you know what happens "under the hood" when converting images from RGB to CMYK? You have to choose whether to use undercolor removal (UCR) or gray component replacement (GCR), how much black to introduce into the separation, and more. Don't worry, it's not as complicated as it sounds! In this tutorial, we'll demystify this process using easy-to-understand examples and visuals to make you a color separation pro!

What you'll learn:

• Undercolor Removal (UCR) color separation techniques
• Gray component replacement (GCR) color separation techniques
• Comparing UCR and GCR, when, why, and how to use
• Different ways to produce the same color using less ink or fewer clicks
• Where it's applied and when colors should be converted in management workflow

Color Space and Gamut: The ABCs of RGB, CMYK, and CIE

Presented by Thorsten Braun, CTO, ColorLogic GmbH

Good color management should allow a color to be reproduced as intended regardless of output. To happen correctly, we must define the color space to reproduce color from one device or application to another faithfully. In this lesson, you'll get an understanding of color spaces and their importance to the color management process.

What you'll learn:

• The difference between color space and color gamut
• RGB, CMYK
• Commission Internationale d'Eclalrage
• CIE Color Systems, CIE XYZ, CIE L*a*b*, CIE LCH
• CIE Standard Illuminant
• Standard observer

Assessing and Verifying Profiles: Did You Pass or Fail?

Presented by Pat Herold, Manager of Tech Support, CHROMiX, Inc.

What does bad look like when it comes to ICC profiles? How do you know if the profile you've just created is any good? In this lesson, you'll go under the hood with ICC profiles and learn how to easily isolate and solve color problems to increase confidence in your color workflow through profile verification.

What you'll learn:

• How to quickly assess a new profile before you use it in print workflow
• How to analyze profiles, devices, and workflows and find the problem when color goes bad
• How to isolate and solve color workflow problems via profile verification and assessment

Establishing an Aimpoint: What's Your Color Bullseye?

Presented by Dan Gillespie, Director of Technical Services, Alder Color Solutions

Understanding and establishing a color aimpoint is fundamentally one of the most important steps in a good color management process. Without an agreed upon aimpoint there is no way to know if your process is effective. Whether it's an industry defined aimpoint or your own device gamut, this is the first step in achieving consistent, predictable, and repeatable color.

What you'll learn:

• Color aimpoints - what are they and where to find them
• What do all these acronyms mean: SWOP, GRACol, and CRPC
• ISO/PAS 15339: An established printing reference standard
• How to set your own color aimpoint

Color Management in Adobe Photoshop

Presented by Abhay Sharma, Professor, School of Graphic Communications Management, Ryerson University

Great color output starts at the beginning during the image capture and creative stage. Do you know how to properly deal with images when you open, proof, and convert images? Wherever your images are coming from or going to, this tutorial will give you practical tips on using ICC profiles to get the best color in Photoshop.

What you'll learn:

• Adobe Photoshop setup for color management
• Choosing the best RGB and CMYK working space
• How to deal with ICC profiles, mismatches, and color management policies
• The difference between assigning and converting profiles
• Using Photoshop and profiles for soft proofing

Understanding ICC Profiles: The What, Why and How

Presented by William Li, Color Products Manager, Kodak

The cornerstone of color management in print production is the ICC profile. But what exactly is it and why is it so important? In this lesson, we'll cover exactly what ICC profiles are, where they come from, how they're used, and why they're integral to color management.

What you'll learn:

• What ICC profiles are, how they work, and why they're needed for color management
• Where they come from, generic and custom profiles
• What are source and destination profiles
• Where they reside on Mac OSX and Windows platforms and how to install them
• Software that supports ICC profiles, software that doesn't support ICC profiles

Color Management in Adobe InDesign

Presented by Shelby Sapusek, Consultant & Chief Marketing Officer, ColorCasters LLC

What exactly is happening under the hood with color management, ICC profiles, and placing images and illustrations in Adobe InDesign? Getting the right color--the intended color--from InDesign requires a basic understanding of color settings and profile handling. Never fear, this lesson will delve into color management in InDesign--using simple examples--to get the best, most accurate and predictable color for your design that's destined for print.  

What you'll learn:

• Adobe InDesign setup for color management
• Choosing the best RGB and CMYK working space
• How to deal with ICC profiles, mismatches, and color management policies
• Importing images and vector graphics in InDesign and how to handle ICC profiles
• Soft proofing with ICC profiles in InDesign
• How to get accurate color--and the right color--when creating PDFs from InDesign

Color Measurement: Your Toolkit for Color Management

Presented by Dan Uress, CEO, Colorware USA, Inc.

For color management to work, you need a constant and predictable system, continually operating at optimum performance with only normal variation. This lesson will delve into the tools, targets, and techniques for successfully implementing color management in your production workflow.

What you'll learn:

• Why color measurement is necessary for color management
• The color management processes that require a measuring instrument
• Instrument types including densitometers, colorimeters, spectrophotometers, and spectrodensitometers

PDF/X: Baking In the Right Color

Presented by Ben Starr, Director of Technology, Color Management Group

If you're working in print production, you need to understand what PDF/X is and why it's critical to a standardized color management workflow. More importantly, there are different PDF/X standards that impact how color is handled and managed. In this tutorial, get a solid understanding of PDF/X standards, how to create PDF/X files, and how each standard impacts color.

What you'll learn:

• What is PDF/X and why is it's essential for print production workflow?
• The PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4, and PDF/X-5 lineup and the ISO 15930-6:2004 standard
• Comparing color for each PDF/X standard--what's similar and what's different?
• How to create PDF/X files and how to verify PDF/X compliance

Calibration: It's 90% of Color Management Success

Presented by Steve Upton, President, CHROMiX, Inc.

A profile is a color snapshot of a device at a given moment in time. If that device is not properly calibrated or drifts over time, then the profile--and the color--won't be accurate. Device consistency is key to color management success, and that's where calibration and process control comes into play. In this lesson, learn why and how to keep your devices calibrated so that the profiles you create can do what they're supposed to do.

What you'll learn:

• The difference between calibration and process control
• How to track device differences over time
• What are the variables we need to control?
• Creating a process to evaluate, calibrate, and monitor device behavior

Color Management in Adobe Acrobat

Presented by Dan Reid, President, RPimaging, INC

To verify that you have a high-quality PDF destined for print production, you had better make sure that you have Acrobat set up correctly for color. In this tutorial, you'll learn all about color management settings and how to use color tools for print production to interrogate color, soft proof, and convert color using Adobe Acrobat.

What you'll learn:

• Adobe Acrobat preferences for color management
• Viewing color separations, warnings, and how to use the object inspector
• Soft proofing using the output preview tool and color profiles
• Using the ink manager to convert color

Color Variation: How Much Is Too Much?

Presented by Mark Bohan, Director Color Solutions, Konica Minolta Business Solutions

When it comes to color printing, normal color variation is part of the process. Color variance is a normal phenomenon in printing--but how much is acceptable? In this lesson, you'll learn what causes color variation in printing, how much to expect, and how to work with your printer to establish color expectations for your jobs.

What you'll learn:

• How ISO standards establish tolerances, but what is acceptable variation?
• Acceptable color variation for print jobs
• What is acceptable color variation across different devices and output (e.g., print/online/digital media)?
• DeltaE-what it is, what's possible and what's not in print, and where do you want to live
• Working with your printer or client to determine acceptable variation and the balance between color accuracy versus cost

Spot Colors: Producing the Best Match Possible

Presented by Peter Pretzer, ColorPath Solutions Development Manager, FUJIFILM North America Corp.

Sometimes color management seems to be mysterious or complicated--it's like watching a magician perform and wondering how they do their trick. In this session, we'll explore the challenges of matching brand and spot colors and expose the "magicians" secret. It's not as hard or complicated as you imagined! Learn how spot colors (Pantone(r) color) are defined, how they're managed, and how to get the most out of your digital printer.

What you'll learn:

• Understanding Pantone(r) spot colors and limitations with digital printing
• Defining spot colors to match your design files with your RIP
• Getting the best match using your printer's full gamut
• How to match custom colors using spot colors
• The challenge of using a tint of a spot color and the ISO 20654:2017 standard

Building Display Profiles: Your Roadmap to Soft Proofing

Presented by Joe Marin, Senior Vice President, Education and Training, PRINTING United Alliance

Most color-critical decisions are made on a display. Yet, most are not color-managing displays to ensure that what we see on our display is as close as possible to the final printed product. Attend this session, learn how to set up a soft proofing workstation the right way!

What you'll learn:

• Benefits of soft proofing for printers and designers
• Standard versus wide gamut displays and what's best for your needs
• How to calibrate a display and create a display profile
• How to confirm and test the profile for accuracy
• When--and how often--to re-calibrate a display
• ISO 12646, ISO 14861, and setting up ideal viewing conditions for soft proofing

The Top 10 List: Most Common Color Management Problems and Solutions

Presented by Jim Raffel, Trainer/Consultant/CEO, ColorCasters LLC

I know, it's mind-blowing! Color problems can (and do) happen in print production workflow. These problems could be design, production, software, or hardware related. But what are the causes and solutions for these pesky problems? In this fast-paced lesson, we'll go "under the hood" and cover the 10 most common color management problems and solutions.

What you'll learn:

• The top 10 color management problems and their cause
• How to solve these most common problems
• Practical tips than can help you now, or in the future!