ICC Color Management -- Saving Time And Money

RGB to CMYK for Printing

The skill crunch comes late in the process: when RGB is transformed to CMYK for printing. "You still need a very highly skilled person to turn it to CMYK," adds Gaughen. "You still need to know color."

Proofing has also been a critical area. Traditionally, printers and customers have been willing to accept "good enough" proofs for layout checking, proofreading and similar mid-process tasks, but insisted on a top quality proof for final approval before printing. Eliminating industry standard, film-based proofs, complete with halftone dots, has been a big job, particularly when many users felt the ink-jet output devices that were so well-suited to quick, cheap, digital output weren't good enough for contract proofs.