Color in the age of digital reproduction

Parraman, Carinna

Abstract

Ask a group of artists to mix a brown and they will likely create a range of rich, deep colors. Ask them to describe
the color and they might resort to analogies such as mahogany, chestnut or chocolate. Ask how to produce the color with pigments and they could probably break it down in great detail, though their opinions might differ. But ask them to describe the same color using the numerical values required in the digital domain and things become problematic. Systems such as red-green-blue (RGB) coordinates; hue, saturation and value (HSV); or L*a*b*(CIELAB) values are terra incognita for most artists, but they are the roadmap of image software, color profiles and “lookup tables,” that drive digital color printers, a core component of today’s digital atelier. The gap between how artists approach color and how it is approached
by commercially available digital printing systems creates numerous problems: it makes it difficult to predict the look
of a printed color, which compromises reproduction and interferes with artistic creativity. In this essay, I examine some of these problems, along with experimental
solutions developed at the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England (CFPR).

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Journal: Art in Print
• Print ISSN: 2164-2702
• Publisher: Art in Print
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 28-33
• Keywords: printed colour, digital reproduction, colour profiles
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/939850
• Publisher URL: http://artinprint.org/index.php/journal