Darrian Young wrote:
...the message, to sum it up, it was that due to the fact that
there are many non-color knowledgeable people at the creative or
beginning end of the production chain, that the best solution is to
maintain RGB data within a PDF/X-3 file format in order for the
knowledgeable to later process as necessary at the end of the line.
I would argue, however, that one needs to have more color knowledge in
order to use an RGB workflow that a CMYK one. If we take a typical user
who may have scanned in an image directly to CMYK and proofed that image
at a service bureau or on an in-house RIP, and done correction for
example, (which is currently pretty common), the chances are quite good
that the print will at least be quite similar to what they were seeing.
To do this same job in RGB, this user must have the knowledge of RGB
working spaces, embedding profiles, setting up the CMYK softproof in
Photoshop and how to proof correctly an RGB image. In this case, then
this user has at least a base of color management. If you add on to
that the ability to create a PDF/X-3 file correctly, then this is not a
"green" uninformed user.
Is anyone from Hewlett Packard here? It seems to me that their strategy
is that CMYK (or Hexachrome, or an extra grey or pale cyan or whatever)
should all be internal matters to be taken care of inside the printing
machine, and that all printing equipment, from the desktop printer to
the Indigo and who knows how much further, should receive RGB data. In
this case, the user need know scarcely anything at all.
George Battrick
ERA