Colour shift on export from FHMX

[Danny Whitehead]

You have quite a complicated mishmash of Freehand colour management issues
there, and I'm struggling to separate them into individual questions that I
can answer. Many of your questions will probably be answered here:

[url]http://tinyurl.com/h83v[/url]

If you still have more specific questions after reading that, post back
here.

In addition, here's a screenshot showing the closest match between Photoshop
and Freehand 9.0.1 I have managed to achieve (at least regarding the
on-screen display of process colours) and the settings I used to achieve it:

[url]http://www.bqps.fsnet.co.uk/otherstuff/cm.jpg[/url]

Where I am using the ColorSync CMM in FH, Windows users would have to use
the Kodak CMM (which seems to have issues in FHMX - another possible cause
of your problems)

A couple of odd things:

1. Setting 'Perceptual' as the rendering intent in Freehand seems to give a
closer match than mimicking Photoshop's 'Relative Colorimetric' setting.

2. No matter how you set up FH's CM, the default black (or even a
custom-mixed 100K) will always display as your monitor's RGB black, rather
than what your separations profile says 100K should look like.



Danny

[plummerdesign webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Danny,
Sorry to be so complex in describing the colour issue. Thank you for the good URL and the notes that prompted me into using PERCEPTUAL as the setting.
The colour vexing continues....

*A customer has asked for an .EPS version of their FreeHand MX artwork. The design uses only WHITE, PA 1505 c, and PA 874 c. So I export the FHmx file as a Photoshop4/5 .EPS.
*When I open the file in Photoshop 5 or 6 the PA 1505 c is no longer a vibrant orange, but closer to PA 144 c- a dull orange. The PA 874 C gold is now a muted tan. I end up having to select and CHANGE the colours of the .EPS back to the correct Pantone specifiers while in Photoshop.
This is a waste of time. Happens on the mac machines too. It is a FreeHand glitch that began in version 9. I do not recall it as an issue in versions 5 thru 8.
Not a good thing.....Make it go away.
Jeff [email]mail@plummerdesign.com[/email]

[Rich Hudgins]

Jeff,

First- when saving as an EPS for placement do not use Photoshop EPS.
The best seems to be QuarkXPress EPS.

Second- when you open an EPS file into Photoshop it does not recognize
Spot colors as spot colors but will rasterize everything into RGB or
CMYK depending on what you specify in the Rasterize dialog. You can
create spot color separations in Photoshop for its own EPSs but I do not
know of a way to open an EPS created outside of Photoshop and keep spot
color separations.

That is why you are seeing the color change in your Pantone colors.

Rich

"plummerdesign" [email]webforumsuser@macromedia.com[/email] wrote:

> Danny,
> Sorry to be so complex in describing the colour issue. Thank you for the good URL and the notes that prompted me into using PERCEPTUAL as the setting.
> The colour vexing continues....
>
> *A customer has asked for an .EPS version of their FreeHand MX artwork. The design uses only WHITE, PA 1505 c, and PA 874 c. So I export the FHmx file as a Photoshop4/5 .EPS.
> *When I open the file in Photoshop 5 or 6 the PA 1505 c is no longer a vibrant orange, but closer to PA 144 c- a dull orange. The PA 874 C gold is now a muted tan. I end up having to select and CHANGE the colours of the .EPS back to the correct Pantone specifiers while in Photoshop.
> This is a waste of time. Happens on the mac machines too. It is a FreeHand glitch that began in version 9. I do not recall it as an issue in versions 5 thru 8.
> Not a good thing.....Make it go away.
> Jeff [email]mail@plummerdesign.com[/email]
>
>

[Danny Whitehead]

in article bf7hub$r2a$1@forums.macromedia.com, plummerdesign at
[email]webforumsuser@macromedia.com[/email] wrote on 18/7/03 1:19 am:

> *A customer has asked for an .EPS version of their FreeHand MX artwork. The
> design uses only WHITE, PA 1505 c, and PA 874 c. So I export the FHmx file as
> a Photoshop4/5 .EPS.
> *When I open the file in Photoshop 5 or 6 the PA 1505 c is no longer a vibrant
> orange, but closer to PA 144 c- a dull orange. The PA 874 C gold is now a
> muted tan.

Which values for the Pantone spot colours are you trying to retain in your
exported EPS?

A) The RGB values, so it can be rasterised in Photoshop in RGB, and retain
the same on-screen appearance, or be converted to a specific CMYK space by a
colour-managed application like Photoshop.

B) The names, so it can either be separated for actual spot colour printing,
or recognised by a RIP in order to utilise built-in spot colour matching
functions (for example a Fiery RIP for a colour copier).

C) The CMYK values based on Pantone's 'Solid to Process' guide, which are
Pantone's recommended values for simulating spot colours in CMYK offset
printing. Bear in mind that whichever software you use, you won't get
anywhere near either of the colours you mentioned in offset CMYK printing -
one is a bright orange (way out of gamut) and the other a metallic gold
(obviously requires metallic ink).

Most types of Freehand EPS export will retain B and C, but 'Photoshop 4/5
RGB EPS' is *supposed* to retain A. If you use 'Copy Special' and this
option, it does as it's supposed to (this is how I get Freehand art into an
RGB Photoshop document). But there seems to be a bug with 'Photoshop 4/5 RGB
EPS' *export* (at least in FH 9.0.1), where it's retaining just A and B,
like all the other types of EPS export. Unless you need to retain the RGB
values for a specific reason, I would take Rich's advice, not worry about
Photoshop's rendering of the EPS, and export as 'Quark Xpress EPS'.


Danny

[plummerdesign webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Gentlemen,
Thank you for the input. I will follow the advise of exporting as QuarkEPS. I do understand the limits of onscreen representaion and comp prints using metallic and hexachrome- they will not print without the proper inks. The results from your suggestions make a for decent workaround.
..
This newsgroup has often helped me determine the best out for any particular situation. Since I am dependant on using software to do what my hands used to do it is to be expected. These nagging bumps in the road are the price we pay for having gone so far from ruby lith and the art marker!
-Jeff