Prepping for Print

If images are going to be printed on a commercial printing press, chances are that they’ll end up looking a lot darker than they did when you viewed them onscreen. This is known as dot gain. Fortunately, Photoshop allows you to compensate for dot gain. You can tell Photoshop ahead of time how you intend to output the images, and the software will adjust the onscreen appearance of the image to look as dark as it should be when printed.

To select or enter dot gain settings, choose Edit > Color Settings. In the Working Spaces area of the Color Settings dialog, use the Gray pop-up menu (Figure 7.21). Ask your printing company what settings to use; otherwise, you’ll just be guessing and you might not like the end result. If you ...

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