Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

Continuing the
discussion on
computer graphics
in print with
Frank Nord
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upgrodes to cope with the new larger-sized
images you ore rendering for print then,
eh? Unfortunately, larger images ore not
the only criterion when creating pictures for
print. The main thing that needs to be taken into
consideration is the large difference between trans.
mined colour and reflected colour - the difference
between looking at a picture on your monitor and
o n e
printed on paper
One of the things that has to be borne in mind is
the inability of the different colour methods to
accurately represent various colours, While RGB is
excelent for a wide range of reds and blues, it isn't
very good at yelows. CMYK, by contrast, is a bit
lax when it comes to showing the range of greens
that RGB is good at.
This is a problem if you ore dealing with images
that will be going to a professional printer because
he will need to change your imoge from its natural
RGB status to a CMYK-capable format like TIFF in
order to be able to print it. Oh, don't worry, hell be
able to convert it, that's no problem. The problem
comes if you've set your heart's desire an a very
definite range of colours.
SATURATION POINT
Just like working with images intended for video,
R GB images ore quite alien too saturated for print
work Because the colours in printing are mode by
laying down more colour the darker you wont the
image to be„ very bright greens, reds and blues ore
hard to achieve because they need the mixing of at
least two of the four inks to represent, thus making
them darker than desired. .
y This contrast between what you want from your
image and what you can achieve is called the
gamut and, like over saturation in video images, it's
o no-no to exceed it. Most software that printers
might use for converting images to CMYK con actually
handle the changes in colours required to bring
the image within the gamut range of the CMYK
colour method, but this can result in a dull image.
With a colour critical image it's probably best, if
you are giving your work to a printer, to insist on a
colour proof or to at least see the image on his
screen in the form it will take before printing, just to
make sure it doesn't deviate too for from your original
vision,
So what can you do about this? Unfortunately,
not a lot. Because of the Amigo's bios towards
graphics for video use, the printed output side of
things has been pretty much ignored. In my fairly
wide experience I have not come across any way of
converting an image to CMYK in a form that can
still be edited ond saved out in on appropriate form
on the Amigo, so you'll have to rely on other
people's interpretation of what your picture should
look like - at least, that is, until Phooshop becomes
available...
Any e xcuse for
a picture of
Sandra Bullock.
I he a r you cry
AMIGA OMPUTING
MAY 19 9 6
Key
issues
A ultilb 1
- U N
I've had a few letters from people asking
me how to get runarounds working prop•
erly. It seems most of you are happy to use
the standard runaround tools provided by
most word processors or DTP packages,
but these tend to either just offer a boxtype
runaround, or are hopelessly inaccurate
in the way they choose to runaround.
The simple answer to your problem is to
use vector graphics to outline your bitmap,
as these tend to give the best runaround
results. Simply import your bitrnap as normal,
but instead of turn text wrap on
immediately, make sure your column of
text doesn't butt up against the image.
Next, choose your draw tool, it might be
named differently in your package, but
you need the tool that allows you to draw
a continuous line with points along it that
can be re-positioned. Then draw a line following
the edge of the image you wish to
wrap your text around. Don't worry about
the colour of it at the moment, just keep
clicking so that your line follows the edge
of your image. But don't click so much that
you end up with a point at every pixel,
you'll be wasting your time. Next, change
the colour of your line to transparent or
white and make sure it is brought to the
front. You will also need to make sure text
runaround is set. Now bring your text box
over your image and see how it looks. In
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our example pictures we have some of the
text over a coloured background, but it
would probably be best to massage such
images so that there is no colour where
your text is, unless you want that as a
deliberate effect.
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