What is Your Working Space and Why It Matters
By
Ron Ellis
There is an important reason to care about the working space you
use. With the exception of scanning we create almost every file we use
digitally, and even these scanned items end up having our working space
applied to them. Not sure what your working space is, or even what it
means? You are not alone. In modern graphic arts workflows the working
space is one of the most important decisions we make. It can also be
one of the most liberating decisions we can make as well, providing us
with the freedom to move our work virtually anywhere with consistent
results.
As mentioned above, nearly any digital
file created references something called a working space. What exactly
is a working space? Working spaces are also known as ‘editing spaces’.
A working space is simply the default or preferred color settings for
your application and is normally chosen in the application’s color
management preferences. In the Adobe applications we are most familiar
with, the working space is a combination of color profiles and settings
that will be used by these applications to convert and render color.
The profiles you have selected as your working space represent a
device’s print space and sets the guidelines for what will happen to
the files you work on. For designers, the choice of a working space
with affect the printer directly. If your working space is in sync with
theirs then you can expect less color correction cycles and an easier
time achieving a color match. Besides being less costly this will also
save you time. If they choose a working space that matches our process
then all is well and the reproduction occurs without problems. If the
customer is using a working space that does not match a print process
then problems result – unrealistic colors, improper total ink amounts,
and a job designed for a different device. Remembering that the working
space represents a device such as a press is important. Even more
important is to make sure that the ‘device’ that the designer is using
to work on their colors is the same device we use in to be used for
print.
So for designers the first question must
be, “What working space are you using when you are creating files.”
Because few designers are aware of working spaces and how they affect
their work, most are not using anything other than the default working
spaces. In Adobe applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat,
and InDesign the default working space for CMYK is the old version of
SWOP (US Web Coated). This means that if a designer has not set a
working space and are just using the defaults they are using the old
version of SWOP (US Web Coated). The original SWOP (US Web Coated) is a
good profile, the gain and total ink settings are optimized for coated
web printing on a yellowish paper, and it is no longer an optimal
working space. (Caution – if you rush out and discover your working
space is set to SWOP don’t just change it. Changing it could affect the
color on live jobs, as well as future jobs. These changes need to be
done carefully to make sure the results are desired.)
How
important is this? To take advantage of sheetfed printing at a quality
commercial printing establishment the designer may be better off using
a newer profile such as GRACoL 2006 instead of a profile intended to
simulate the older SWOP (US Web Coated). By converting from an older
web coated working space to one tuned for modern commercial printing
the images will have higher, and will be better suited for their
destination. For example GRACoL 2006 has a higher total ink limit than
SWOP (US Web Coated) and will allow the designer to print with a
slightly higher gamut and more vibrant colors. (For those printing to
web offset, there is an updated version of SWOP called SWOP3_2006, and
SWOP5_2006. The 3 and 5 represent the paper grade.)
An important
point to remember in regard to the working space is that nearly all
North American color separators, and many large US print buyers are now
printing to the GRACoL 2006 and SWOP 2006 working spaces. This means if
you are buying outside proofs or making internal proofs they are most
likely targeted to these working spaces. Many large print providers are
G7 Qualified Master printers and can print to these spaces. The reason
choosing a working space such as SWOP 2006, GRACoL 2006, or even FOGRA
is that once you are in that working space you can move your work to
any printers who support that working space and expect the same
results. While standardization and the choice of a working space may
sound boring it allows you to move your work around at will, as well as
be able to accurately predict the color you will get. The thing to
remember is that the designer’s choice (or lack of choice) of a working
space is important.
Your printer has also
chosen a working space, though like designers, many printing plants
have actually never even changed their default working space. This
working space is of course just as important in a printing plant as it
is to the designer. In a perfect world this working space would be
tuned to match the pressroom. (or in the case of GRACoL 2006 and SWOP
2006 the pressroom is actually tuned to match the working space)
Keeping in mind that the perfect digital working space would be
the same thing as the actual pressroom. The pressroom is itself a
working space, and in most pressrooms the question is what working
space is the pressroom. Often it falls into one of the following
categories:
1. We are G7 Qualified and match
GRACoL 2006, SWOP 2006, SNAP, Fogra or another specification or
standard. (This is desired but less common in actual practice. Often
this is done because a key customer requests it.)
2.
I don’t know. The prepress tech did something when they set up
the platesetter but we don’t know what it is, it hasn’t been checked
since, and they only spent one day and one or two quick pressruns on
it. (This is called a mystery working space because it was more a ctp
calibration than a press calibration, and the press was not matched to
any existing condition.)
3. Custom. I am
familiar with GRACoL, SWOP, or SNAP and but have my own standard which
I think is better that most other printers using these standards.
It
is obvious that there are a wide variety of choices we can make
regarding the pressroom and how it is controlled it. These choices
range from a pressroom being an unknown monster that controls us to a
highly refined manufacturing process. The important thing is to
recognize that there must be some type of connection between the
working space used by the designer and the actual pressroom the job is
going to. We can control that device and make it match a specification
such as GRACoL 2007 and SWOP 2006, and by doing this make it so that a
great number of designers can emulate these press conditions.
If
you have CS4 you will notice this it now includes GRACoL 2006 and SWOP
2006 profiles so that you can use these in your working space. These
are the recommended profiles for printing in the US, as well as in many
parts of the world that support these specifications. Some of the older
(and not recommended) default profiles included with the Adobe
applications for use as working spaces include:
US Web Coated (SWOP) V2 – for use with Web and Publication work, based on older SWOP
US Sheetfed Coated V2 for use with Commercial Coated based on older GRACoL 6
US Sheetfed Uncoated V2 for use with Commercial Uncoated
US Web Uncoated for use with newsprint based on older SNAP
To
test any of these out simple take an image in Adobe Photoshop and
convert to each of these profiles and then view the channels and info
for each conversions. The differences will be obvious, as will the look
each working space applies to the image.
In
summary, the working space that you choose whether you are a designer
or printer is very important. It is the space that you will be using to
describe color. If you pick a space widely used such as GRACoL 2006 or
SWOp 2006 then you will most likely have a better time predicting your
color and finding printers who can give you a good match. Ultimately
this results in increased efficiency, lower costs – and more
importantly getting the color you want in your final product.
Ron Ellis is a Boston-based consultant specializing in color management, worflow integration, and press calibration. He has provided installation and training services to dealers, manufacturers, and content creators since 1986. An IDEAlliance G7 Expert and chair of the GRACoL Committee, Ron has performed over 100 G7 calibrations. In addition to calibrating pressrooms for customers such as Pantone, Ron also specializes in creating internal working spaces for brands and agencies that allow them to work more efficiently with vendors, saving both time and money. Ron is published frequently in industry magazines, and has produced training materials for numerous printing industry vendors and publishers. He can be contacted at 603-498-4553 or through his web site at www.ronellisconsulting.com.
