Welcome to Riverside Graphics

• Working with Color
• Envelopes
• Paper Weights and Sizes
• Fonts
• Tips for Saving Graphic Files
• Sending in a Job (file formats, images, fonts)
• What should I look for when receiving a proof?
• When My Job is finished, how do I pay for it?

If you have any questions not answered here or something that needs clarification, please feel free to ask us. We can be reached by phone (312.372.3766), fax (312.372.7233), or email (orders@riversidegx.com).

Working With Color...

COLOR BASICS

Light & Color
The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow; these colors refer to pigment and paint rather than the spectrum of light. In fact, the primary colors of the light spectrum are red, green and blue. Objects appear as a certain color because they absorb some primary colors and reflect others. A red object appears red because it is absorbing green and blue light, while reflecting red toward your eyes.

Red, Green and Blue are called additive primaries because when three lights of these colors are added together, they are seen as white light. These are the colors used for color separation filters.

RGB
The RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) colors on a screen are created by adding light to change a black appearing screen. Four color process printing uses colored inks to partially obscure the paper's white surface and subtract reflection of certain colors until a desired color is visible. These two different systems are called additive color and subtractive color. The screen is additive color because light is added to create color. The press uses subtractive color because inks are used to partially block the reflection of light.

CMYK
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) uses different percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black to create or "build" color. This technique is sometimes called screened color because screens of each color are used to create a new color. Because process color are "built" from two to four inks, they sometimes look murkier than a spot color. Some spot colors are impossible to render through process color. Consequently, the color on the monitor can create a number of strong colors that cannot be reproduced in print. A conversion from RGB to CMYK is necessary for printing process color.

RGB vs. CMYK

When an additive primary color is subtracted from white light, the remaining colors form new colors (cyan, magenta and yellow). These colors are called subtractive primary colors. The subtractive primaries (CMY) with black (K) added to become CMYK, are the colors of the process color printing inks.

RGB - Red, Green, and Blue, are the colors of your monitor.

CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black are the four process colors used in printing.

Some digital devices will accept RGB images and convert them into CMYK, sometimes with good results. But this is a little like Russian Roulette with a paint gun, so beware. Results can be different from one job to the next!

If you need full color printing, your files must be converted to CMYK in order to get process color separated film.

When color is the most important issue, a color proof is a must.

SPOT COLOR vs. PROCESS COLOR

Spot Color - The use of a specific ink color on a designated area of the sheet. (See PMS colors)

Process Color - Using CMYK and 4 halftones the press can reproduce full color artwork beautifully.

You may combine spot color with full color photographs. In this case, it is recommended that all spot color be converted to process color in order to save money in the printing process.

COLOR CORRECTION

Riverside Graphics must convert your photographs or scanned images to CMYK before they RIP the file to an imagesetter to obtain film or print to a digital output device. However, color correction should be done in RGB. Here's why:

Scanners are RGB devices and will scan your image as RGB color. It is recommended that all color correction and image manipulation be done in the RGB mode, as monitors are also RGB devices and will render more accurate color correction for viewing. Additionally, RGB has less color information, so the image is a smaller size making working with it easier and faster.

When the file is ready for printing and does not require any further prepress, only then can you convert the images to CMYK.

WILL MY PRINTED PIECE LOOK EXACTLY LIKE IT DOES ON MY COMPUTER MONITOR?

There are some small differences. Scanners and digital cameras create images using combinations of just three colors: Red, Green and Blue (called "RGB"). These are the colors that computers use to display images on your screen. But printing presses print full color pictures using a different set of colors: Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black (called "CMYK"). So at some stage your RGB file must be translated to CMYK in order to print it on a printing press. This is easily done using an image editing program like PhotoShop, PhotoDeluxe, or Corel PhotoPaint.

Caution: It's Best If You do the RGB-to-CMYK Conversion of Your Images!

You will have more control over the appearance of your printed piece if you convert all of the images from RGB to CMYK before sending them to us. When we receive RGB images, we do a standard-value conversion to CMYK, which may not be perfectly to your liking. We want you to be happy, so please, take the time to prepare your file properly.

Be aware that it is possible to make colors in RGB that you can't make with CMYK. They are said to be "out of the CMYK color gamut". What happens is that the translator just gets as close as possible to the appearance of the original and that's as good as it can be. It's something that everyone in the industry puts up with. So it's best to select any colors you use for fonts or other design elements in your layout using CMYK definitions instead of RGB. Color photos don't suffer much from CMYK translation

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