Calibration and Photoshop Color Settings

Question

I use Windows 7. I calibrated my monitor with ColorMunki and use this profile as my default monitor profile. It looks great as I see the difference between non-calibrated and calibrated. Colors and contrast are awesome now.

I use Photoshop to design prints on T-shirts. I work in the RGB Color Mode in 8 bit and soft proof in CMYK to avoid working in CMYK and converting back to RGB.

My question is about choosing the right "working space" in "Color Settings". My understanding is that the preset "North american Prepress 2" would be the way to go. I think it's the best option for screen and print material as the workspace is "Adobe RGB 1998" and the CMYK as "U.S. Web coated".

My question is the following though:

In "color Settings", "Working Space" I can see my monitor calibrated profile called "AUO_.....". I assume this would be a big mistake to choose "Monitor RGB" with my calibrated color profile since my working space has to do with my perception of color on the monitor and not the monitor itself.

Am I correct?

I understand that the "working space" is a subjective color environment created by Adobe to adjust colors for every screen monitor.

I appreciate any input on this.

Answer 1

This is two different issues - your monitor calibration and working space.

Monitor calibration - these are the settings you use to make sure that the values you enter for a color are displayed faithfully. In other words, if you calibrate your monitor using a dedicated tool (which you have) you should be able to bring up an analog of a particular color (for instance, a chip of Pantone #85) and it should appear the same way on the screen as it does in meatspace.

Color Settings - these are the settings you choose based on your intended media / destination. Since computer screens display colors based on the amount of illumination provided by individual red, green, and blue pixels web designers typically design in RGB so that their colors don't shift once they hit the interwebs. Print designers, however, typically work with additive CMYK colors - a certain amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are printed over each other to create a particular green, blue, etc. required. To ensure that the piece of paper / breakfast cereal box / magazine ad looks the same as it does on their computer screen they work with the same colors that will (hopefully) be reproduced in print (in fact, one of the nice things about working digitally is that software can automatically create the color separation plates needed).

The big problem typically comes when you try to move back and forth - the software will makes its best guess but won't always be perfect, so if you have two people working in different color spaces (for instance, a designer working in RGB and a printer working in CMYK) you'll end up with different colors.

Since you're working on t-shirt design I'm assuming you will be working with spot colors - red #85, blue #30, etc. I would advise keeping your calibrated profile and verifying that it does, indeed, match the inks you're working with by holding samples up. I would imagine the manufacturers have hex values for the various colors you routinely use.