We’ve just wrapped up the finishing touches on a few new designs, most of which were relatively political. During the digital preparation I ran into a small hurdle. Not a new hurdle but instead just a self imposed dilemma caused by a memory lapse. I created every design in RGB format and completely forgot to covert and adjust the files to CMYK before my test printing. Now anyone who knows anything about pre-press preparation knows that this is not good. All of the files that I printed were dulled due to the color change over. Usually I would design using CMYK from the door or use RGB and spend some extra time tweaking and adjusting my colors after converting to CMYK but I just completely forgot. I did manage to adjust all of the designs barely making my design deadline. You can check out the end result. I tried to stay as bipartisan as possible :-).

Color managing is extremely important when designing for printing. Since monitors use the RGB color spectrum and most printers use CMYK, you really have to know your stuff and make sure you are set-up properly. We calibrate our monitors once a week using the Eye-One Gretag Macbeth color spectrometer. The prices for the spectrometer range anywhere from $250 to $2,500 so there is a product for pretty much anyone. This is definitely not a tool that you want to overlook. It ensures that what you are seeing on your monitor is what you will see post printing. Without this tool you are playing a guessing game.