bitmap traced image, I want to read it in cmyk

[markJ]

good to know, I`ll just eyeball some test prints to see which cmyk inputs work best for me with both progs, probably PSD since it has official cmyk conversions and a pantone palette.

[steve.ledger]

Are you calibrating using specific icc printer profiles?
Also, don't forget to make use of Window>>Show Printer Colors>> Simulate Print Colors when 'eyeballing'

[markJ]

Thanks Sledger, that I forgot was available,I hadn`t been hanging around xara for a while, when I do that the cmyk readings are the same regardless of if its screen colours or print colour view...I guess this is because the cymk values are mathematical and not calculated on the visual screen appearance...

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/p...eview_xara.jpg

[steve.ledger]

w...I guess this is because the cymk values are mathematical and not calculated on the visual screen appearance...

Rarely are two monitors alike, too many factors, unless you have calibrated and profiled your monitor also.
Xtreme can't know how the colours are *appearing* (as viewed by a human) on your screen, so yes 'values' are used.
Incidentally, you can enter integer values rather than percentages for the C/M/Y/K unit in the Xtreme colour pallete. See Options>>Units

[markJ]

a wealth of knowledge as usual sledger, we`ll have to scan/hardcopy your brain for long term storage.

[gwpriester]

Mark

How do you intend to use the tracing and why does it have to be CMYK?

You can export the image as a CMYK TIFF file which automatically converts all the RGB colors to CMYK. But then you have made a bitmap image from a vector object that was formerly a bitmap image.

Or you can export the image as PDF/X in which case all vector objects remain vector objects and the color space is changed to CMYK.

[markJ]

Hi Garry
this is just my personal learnings for other work, the tiff and pdf/x export as cmyk is great help, its going in my glory box.
with the tracing itself Garry; It started off just wanting to test the tracer photorealism quality settings again which is outstanding..the curiosity for me in how different levels create different shapes yet they all form the same image..I hadnt used xara in a while so tried setting colour to cmyk, but couldnt, and wanted to understand those makeups as cmyk amounts, as opposed to rgb which I cannot visualize as well even though I understand the subtractive light process, I don`t need the traced imaged itself in cmyk but would like to work while in cmyk mode, I do this all in photoshop but I just wanted to do the readings in cmyk in xara which was pretty much answered early in the piece in options/view default as cmyk...
I also work with natural media paints so observing in cmyk feels more natural to me as I do my vector fills and colour adjustments in xara, more intuitive for me, its one born of curiosity and wanting to understand the cmyk relationships of different surfaces, but I was curious also why the readings were different in photoshop cmyk compared to xara, as I was playing a game of choosing several shapes and trying to guess the cmyk mixes then hovering over and checking the result, I like doing this, and altering one of cmyk sliders to see the slight adjustment, it is fun, but xara kept defaulting to rgb, so thats when I asked on the forum how to overcome that.. I could just as well want to study the motion of clouds or trees.. and guess what kind of movement will occur once the wind picks up, if I zone into it, it feels like I can almost move with it..if I observe the tree enough I can almost guess how it will bend... but I wouldnt bet on it, obviously I have my spare moments..

[Soquili]

Hi Mark,

Some good information about the additive and subtractive colour systems can be found at: http://www.rgbworld.com/color.html

Wikipedia has a good article on subtractive colour and an example of a very early (1877) colour photo using cyan, magenta, and yellow rather than the current red, green, and blue of digital and film media.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtractive_color

It can also be fun playing with the two colour models within Xara Xtreme.

[Soquili]

You can download a Xara colour wheel from the XaraXone:
http://www.xaraxone.com/html/templates.html

The following thread also has some information about the Xara Colour Editor that may also be helpful. http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=25258

[gwpriester]

Mark

I find HVS is a much more intuitive color model for mixing colors. You drag the hue slider left or right along the rainbow colors to determine the primary color then you drag the value and saturation slider around inside the large preview box to establish light and dark and more color saturation or less color saturation.

Various applications try to replicate a specific color in CMYK using different algorithms. They all basically come up with the same results but by different methods. So one application might use more black to make a color denser and another might use a higher percentage of the three primaries CMY to make a color denser. In the end the two color may print identically, but the mixes are different. So the answer is no set rule for how a program mixes a certain color.

The exception to this is the Pantone libraries which should be the same from one application to another because this is a universal palette using a specific formulation.