This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

1 [CREATE NEW RGB DOCUMENT]
Choose File>New, select Basic RGB from the New Document Profile pop-up menu, and click OK. Open the Symbols panel (Window>Symbols), then click the flyout menu and choose Open Symbol Library>Grime Vector Pack.

2 [DRAG SYMBOL ONTO ARTBOARD]
Next, click-and-drag Grime Vector Pack 09 from the Grime Vector Pack panel onto the artboard. Go up to the Control panel and click the Break Link button. This will turn the art into a regular shape rather than a symbol instance. Open the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) and choose a bright green color for the shape.

3 [DRAG SECOND SYMBOL ONTO ARTBOARD]
Go back to the Grime Vector Pack panel and click-and-drag Grime Vector Pack 10 onto the artboard. Once again, click the Break Link button to turn it into a regular shape. Then choose a red color for this shape in the Swatches panel.

4 [TURN SHAPES BACK INTO SYMBOLS]
At this point we have two splat shapes: a red one and a green one. With the Selection tool (V), take these shapes and turn them back into symbols by dragging them into the Symbols panel. In the Symbol Options dialog that appears, choose Graphic and give each symbol a name. This will also turn these existing shapes on the artboard into symbol instances.

5 [CHANGE PERSPECTIVE OF SYMBOL]
Select one of the shapes and choose Effect>3D>Rotate. This will allow you to rotate the object in 3D while still being 2D. In the 3D Rotate Options dialog that appears, you can grab the cube and rotate the object freely, or you can input the numbers manually for exact positioning (click the Preview checkbox to see your changes). To rotate the object on a specific axis, place your cursor where any two sides of the cube meet in the dialog. The colored lines correspond to a specific axis, as indicated on the right. As a final touch, set the Perspective to 100° to give it an exaggerated perspective that adds more interest.

6 [APPLY SAME ROTATION TO SECOND SYMBOL]
Repeat Step 5 for the other symbol to apply the same 3D rotation, then position them so they overlap each other, as shown here. If the perspective seems off, you can always modify the 3D settings of either symbol. To do this, select a symbol, open the Appearance panel (Window>Appearance), and click the 3D Rotate effect.

7 [ADD TEXT; CONVERT TO OUTLINES]
Select the Type tool (T) in the Toolbox. While you may use any word you like, we’ve chosen to be obvious and use the word SPLAT! We’re using a very bold font called Rockwell Extra Bold. Switch to the Selection tool, then go into the Swatches panel and choose a color that will go along with the red and green; we’re using blue. Now convert the text to outlines by choosing Type>Create Outlines.

8 [POSITION TEXT]
With the Selection tool, position this text over the 3D splats and resize to taste. Then, choose Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel. What we need to do here is use the current 3D splats as a guide for the perspective. You can grab the cube and position the text in 3D. Notice we set the Perspective to 125° for a more exaggerated look. Also, set the Extrude Depth to 40 pt. Next, click the More Options button to reveal the lighting controls. Grab the light handle on the sphere and position it so it’s front and left of the sphere in relation to the text itself. Click OK.

9 [ROTATE LETTERS]
We have the text in 3D, but it needs something extra because it looks like it just slammed down on the floor. Because the 3D effect is a live effect, we can modify the original shapes of the text and it will be updated as we change them. Grab the Direct Selection tool (A) in the Toolbox and select any one of the letters. Then grab the Rotate tool (R) and give the letter a slight turn. The 3D effect will redraw based on the new position. Do this to a couple other letters, slightly varying the rotation.

10 [ADD SHADOWS]
Select the Pen tool (P) in the Toolbox and set the Fill color to black up in the Control panel. Draw some shapes at the bottom of the letters that conform to the contour somewhat, as these will be shadows. Once all the shapes are done, choose the Selection tool and Shift-click each shadow area to select them. Open the Transparency panel (Window>Transparency) and lower the Opacity to 50%. Now we need to put these shadow shapes behind the letters. Click on a letter with the Selection tool and choose Object>Arrange>Bring to Front.

11 [MAP ART]
Let’s go back to those colored splats we created earlier. We’re going to make it appear as if some of the color splashed up onto the letters. With the text still selected, open the Appearance panel and click on 3D Extrude & Bevel. In the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options dialog, click on the Map Art button to open the Map Art dialog. The current surface is indicated by a red outline on the art itself. To get to the front face of the letter P, toggle through the numbered surfaces at the top of the Map Art dialog until the red outline selects it.

12 [ADD SPLAT COLORS TO LETTERS]
With the P selected (the outline, not the solid), click the Symbol menu and find the splat symbols. Select the green one and it will apply to the letter. If the graphic comes in really big, click the Scale to Fit button at the bottom, then drag it toward the bottom of the letter. Make sure the Preview button is checked so you can see the result. Use the control handles on the bounding box to resize and rotate the symbol as necessary. Continue to add these splats to other letters and this will result in a cool splash effect on the text.

Final Image

Learning the Accordion

One of the most useful user interface constructs is the accordion panel. It allows you to stack various sections of your site and then expand and contract the sections when they’re clicked on. In this tutorial, we’ll create a basic animating accordion panel that can be used as the basis for a full Flash website.

1 [EXAMINE THE FILES]
Open the accordion folder (from the download files available at www.layersmagazine.com) and you should see two FLA files: The accordion.fla file is what you’ll need to open to start the tutorial, and the accordion_final.fla file is a finished version of the tutorial that you can use as a reference. There’s also another folder named gs, which contains an ActionScript animation library called TweenLite that we’ll use to do our animation.

2 [OPEN THE FLA]
Open the accordion.fla file in Flash CS4 (this tutorial will also work with Flash CS3 if you haven’t yet upgraded). On the Timeline, you’ll see two layers: The actions layer will hold all of our ActionScript 3.0 code for this project and the panels layer will contain all of the various sections for our site. The movie is 690 pixels wide and 355 pixels high with a frame rate of 30, and it’s set to publish for Flash Player 9, as we won’t be using any of the new Flash Player 10 features.

3 [DRAW A PANEL]
Select the first frame of the panels layer and select the Rectangle tool (R). In the Property inspector, remove the Stroke color (if there is one) and set the Fill color to #0066CC (blue). Drag out a rectangle on the Stage at any size, then in the Property inspector set the following: W(idth) 600; H(eight) 355; X 0; Y 0. (Note: Make sure the chain icon is “broken” next to Width and Height.) Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the rectangle and choose Convert to Symbol. In the dialog that appears, name it “panel1,” make sure that Movie Clip is the Type, and click OK.

4 [ADD A TEXT FIELD]
In the Property inspector, give the new movie clip an Instance name of “panel1.” Double-click on it with the Selection tool (V) to enter edit mode. Select the Text tool (T), set the Character Family to Myriad Pro (or another font—make sure it’s a clean, legible font, as it will be rotated 90°), enter Size (as desired), and Color (we chose white). Click on the Stage and enter the text, “Panel 1.” Switch to the Selection tool, open the Transform panel (Window>Transform), and set Rotate to 90°. Return to the Property inspector and set the type’s X property to 0 and Y to 9. Click on Scene 1 to return to the main Timeline.

5 [DUPLICATE THE PANEL]
Now we’ll duplicate the movie clip panel for each section of the site. In the Library panel, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the panel1 movie clip and choose Duplicate. You’ll be prompted to give the new clip a name, so let’s call it “panel2.” Now drag an Instance of the panel2 movie clip onto the Stage, and in the Property inspector, position it at X 30 and Y 0. Give the clip an Instance name of “panel2.” (Obviously, if you were building a real site you could name the various clips based on what they contained.)

6 [MODIFY THE DUPLICATE PANEL]
Double-click on the panel2 movie clip to enter edit mode so you can customize this panel. With the Text tool, change the text to “Panel 2.” Then, select the rectangle and choose another color in the Property inspector. Go back out the main Timeline. Now follow the same steps to create two more panels. Offset the X property on each panel by 30 pixels—that means the third panel will have an X of 60 and the fourth will be X 90. Be sure to give each panel an Instance name, following the same convention as above.

7 [IMPORT TWEENLITE]
Select the first frame in the actions layer and open the Actions panel (Window>Actions). Enter the code shown here into the panel. These two lines of code import the TweenLite animation library so that we can use it. TweenLite is an ActionScript 3.0 library that makes animating with code extremely simple. All that’s required is a single line of code to create some really complex animations. There are other engines such as Tweener and gTween that would also work well for this tutorial. (Note: Make sure the gs folder is in the same folder as your FLA file.)

8 [SET LEFT AND RIGHT POSITIONS]
Add the code highlighted here into the Actions panel. In these four lines of code, we’re attaching some information to each of the panels that will help us when we need to animate them. The first property, lx, is the leftmost X position of the panel. The rx property is the X position for the panel when it’s on the right side of the movie. Notice how all of these values are offset by 30 pixels from one another. The ind property simply holds the index number of the panel.

9 [ADD CLICK EVENTS]
Now we need to set up the click events for each of the panels so that they can react when one of them is clicked. Add these next highlighted lines of code to the Actions panel. The first four lines sets up the click events for each panel. All of them will call a function named onClick that’s located at the bottom of the code block. When a panel is clicked, it will animate all of the panels to the correct position allowing the user to view the full contents of that panel.

10 [WHO WAS CLICKED?]
Since all of the panels will call the same function when they’re clicked on, we need to determine which one was clicked so we can animate the panels appropriately. We can easily get a reference to that clip by using the target property of the event object that gets sent to the function. Add this highlighted code into the Actions panel at the specified location to create a variable named “clicked,” which references the clip that was clicked on.

11 [LOOP THROUGH THE PANELS]
Now that we know which clip has been clicked on, we need to loop through all of the panels and animate them to the correct position. In ActionScript 3.0, the most common way to do this is by using a “for” loop. A counter variable is incremented each time the loop is run until it no longer satisfies the condition. Enter the highlighted code into the Actions panel at the specified location. Inside the loop we create a new variable named “mc” that references the panel clip based on the value of the loop counter i.

12 [ANIMATE THE PANELS]
Enter this highlighted code into the Actions panel at the location specified. First, we check whether the index of the current clip is less than or equal to the index of the clip that was clicked on. If it is, we need to animate it to the left. If not, it needs to be animated to the right. For each case, we’re using the TweenLite.to function to do the animation. The animation length is set to 0.5 seconds and we’re using an exponential ease-out effect. Both of these settings can be customized to change the feel of the animation (see Step 14).

13 [ADD CONTENT TO THE PANELS]
Test the movie by choosing Test Movie from the Control menu. Click on the various panels to see the nice animation effect. Now that the code is complete, you can start customizing the panels so that they contain actual content. Double-click on one of the panels to enter edit mode. Now you can start adding text, images, video, or anything else that you want on that particular panel. Check out the accordion_final.fla file to see an example of a finished panel.

14 [CUSTOMIZE TWEENLITE]
As mentioned in Step 12, you can change some of the values in the TweenLite function call to customize the animation effect. Try changing Expo.easeOut to Bounce.easeOut. This makes the panels bounce into place. Another interesting choice would be Elastic.easeOut, which gives it a springy, elastic effect. You can also adjust the length of the animation to achieve different results. To see the full list of customization options, check out the documentation for TweenLite at http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3.

1 PREPARE QUICKTIME VIDEO IN A VIDEO EDITOR
Although you can insert many different types of video into your pages in Dreamweaver, you’ll first need to edit and convert the video in a video editor, such as Adobe Premiere Pro (shown here).

2 OPEN THE INSERT PANEL IN DREAMWEAVER
Dreamweaver’s Insert panel (Window>Insert) provides a handy collection of options, including the Insert>Media>Plugin feature you’ll need for adding video in QuickTime, Windows Media, or any format other than Flash. If you’re using Dreamweaver CS4, you have the option to keep the Insert panel at the top of the workspace using the CS3 workspace layout (Window>Workspace Layout>Classic) or integrate it into the panels, as we’ve done here. (Note: In Dreamweaver CS3, this feature is called the Insert Bar and it’s only available at the top of the workspace.)

3 INSERT QUICKTIME FILE
First, place your cursor where you want to add the video in your webpage. Then, with the Insert panel open and the drop-down menu at the top set to Common, click the arrow to open the drop-down menu next to the Media icon and select Plugin (note that the Media icon changes to reflect whatever you last selected). Alternatively, you can choose Insert>Media>Plugin.

4 SELECT THE QUICKTIME FILE
If you’ve used the Insert Flash Video (FLV) options in Dreamweaver, you may be surprised that when you add video in other formats using the Plugin option, you won’t be presented with a dialog that contains settings for size or other video options. Don’t worry; just select the QuickTime file for now (as you would if you were inserting an image into the page—just Control-click [PC: Right-click] on the Plugin icon and select Source File). You’ll get a chance to set the size and other settings in the following steps.

5 SPECIFY SIZE IN THE PROPERTY INSPECTOR
Because Dreamweaver can’t automatically detect the size of a QuickTime file, you’ll need to specify the size after you insert it into the page. To do so, click to select the 32×32 icon that Dreamweaver inserts in place of the video and then enter the actual size of the video in pixels in the W (width) and H (height) fields in the Property inspector. The video file we’re using in this lesson is 720×480 pixels. Once you input the sizes, the icon will expand to the specified size.

6 ADD A PLUGIN PAGE URL
With the video selected, you can also use the Property inspector to add a Plugin Page URL. The Web address you enter in the Plg URL field will be displayed in place of the video if the visitor to your site doesn’t have the QuickTime player installed on his or her system. If you’re using QuickTime video, the Plugin URL is http://www.apple.com/quicktime.

7 ALIGN YOUR VIDEO FILE
Although you can use the Align drop-down menu in the Property inspector to align your video, the better option is to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). In this example, we’ve created class styles named .float-right and .float-left using the Float options in the Box category of the CSS Rule Definition dialog. To create a new class style, click on the New CSS Rule icon in the CSS Styles panel, choose Class in the drop-down menu, name your style, and click OK to enter the CSS Rule Definition dialog. (You’ll find lots more information about creating and using class styles on the Layers magazine website in the Dreamweaver tutorials section.)

8 SPECIFY A BORDER, V SPACE, AND H SPACE
To add a border to your video, enter the size you want in pixels in the Border field in the Property inspector. You can also add V Space and H Space (vertical and horizontal space, respectively). When you use H space and V space, you add margins to the top and bottom or left and right. If you define a style in CSS to specify margins and border, you’ll have more options and can choose to add margin space to any or all of the sides of the video, as well as change the color and style of the border.

9 USE PARAMETERS FOR ADVANCED SETTINGS
For more advanced options and settings, you’ll use the Parameters option in Dreamweaver and you’ll need to know the parameter options specific to QuickTime (or whatever video format you’re using). To open the Parameters dialog, click on the Parameters button in the Property inspector (remember, the video must be selected for these options to display in the Property inspector).

10 SET VIDEO TO LOOP WITH PARAMETERS
If you want your video to play in a continuous loop, use the Parameters dialog, enter “loop” as the Parameter and “true” as the Value, and click OK. Most parameters work this way with true being the setting to turn an option on, and false the setting to turn an option off. Thus, if you set the Parameter to “loop” and the Value to “false,” the video won’t loop.

11 TURN OFF AUTOPLAY
To add additional parameters, click the plus (+) sign at the top of the Parameters dialog and then enter each parameter and value on its own line. Another popular QuickTime parameter is Autoplay. To prevent the video from playing when the page loads, enter the Parameter “autoplay” with the Value “false.”

12 MORE PARAMETERS
You’ll find more parameters and Embed settings for QuickTime at www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed2.html. Another popular option is to include the video controller using the Parameter “controller” and Value “true.” To hide the controller, set the Value to “false.” And here’s an advanced tip: For the controller to display properly, you need to add 16 pixels to the Height of the video in the Property inspector. So the new Height in this example would be 496 pixels.

13 PRESS PLAY TO PREVIEW
Dreamweaver CS4 makes it possible to preview the video in the Dreamweaver workspace. Just select the video and press the Play button in the Property inspector and the video should play much as it would in a Web browser with the QuickTime plug-in. You can also preview your work by using the Browser preview option (File>Preview in Browser). (Note: You must have the QuickTime plug-in installed on your computer for the QuickTime video to play in a Web browser.)

1 A PANORAMA ALIGNMENT GLITCH
In most cases, the seams created by Photomerge are very successful, but sometimes it may have “issues.” This panorama was made from three horizontal images taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And no matter how many times I’ve tried to get Photomerge to blend these images, it always creates an alignment glitch at the top of the locomotive, just above the windshield. In this section of the article, we’ll create the initial panorama—glitch and all—and then explore a few different ways to try and fix the problem.

2 CREATE THE PHOTOMERGE
To experience the steps from the beginning, launch the Photomerge process. In this tutorial, we’ll launch it from Adobe Bridge by selecting the three thumbnails and choosing Tools>Photoshop>Photomerge. In the Photomerge dialog, leave the Layout set to Auto and make sure that Blend Images Together is checked. Click OK.

3 INITIAL EVALUATION
At first glance it might seem that the most straightforward way to tackle the problem would be to edit the layer masks that Photomerge has created. The problem with this approach, however, is that there are three layer masks and each one is precisely aligned with the other two. Although it’s not immediately apparent in the blended result, there’s also a problem created by the auto blending, which has changed tonal values in the sky to match the layer masks. Editing these masks will reveal this tonal mismatch and create additional problems.

4 TURN OFF THE LAYER MASKS
To see the potential problems created by the auto blending, Shift-click on each of the layer masks to temporarily disable them. You can see an obvious variation in the sky tones just above the cab of the locomotive (in this illustration, the image was darkened with a curve to make these tonal changes more visible). The tonal variation in this area is in the exact shape of the same area of the layer masks for the Train Middle and Train Right layers.

5 PHOTOMERGE, TAKE 2: NO BLENDING
Before we try any complicated patching or cloning repair jobs, let’s see if we can coax a better result from Photomerge. Close the first image without saving it and return to Bridge. With the three thumbnails selected, choose Tools>Photoshop>Photomerge. In the Photomerge dialog, leave the Layout set to Auto but uncheck the Blend Images Together option. Click OK.

6 TAKE 2: REARRANGE LAYERS
For this image, Photomerge has definite ideas about how the layers should be arranged. But one obvious way to try and fix the problem is to simply rearrange the layers so that Train Right is above Train Middle. Hopefully, this will address the problem of the alignment error on the roof of the locomotive. In the Layers panel, rearrange the stacking order of the layers so that Train Right is the top layer, Train Middle is in the middle, and Train Left in on the bottom.

7 MANUALLY ALIGN LAYERS
Even though we turned off the blending in the Photomerge dialog, there are still a couple of automated features left for us to try. To nudge these features in the right direction, we’ll manually align the layers. Make the Train Right layer active. Double-click the Zoom tool to zoom to 100%. Select the Move tool (V) and use the Up and Left Arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge this layer up and left until the “A” in the word RAIL aligns with the same letter on the middle layer. This will also align the top of the train.

8 CUSTOM LAYER TRIMMING
The letter “A,” which we just aligned, could conceivably still cause some problems, so let’s fix that. Make sure the top layer (Train Right) is active, choose the Lasso tool (L), and set the Feather value in the Options Bar to 0 px. Make a lasso selection around the letter “A” in RAIL and press Delete (PC: Backspace) to delete this chunk of pixels. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

9 MODIFY THE LEFT SIDE
Now let’s inspect the left side of the image. Creating a seam through the back of this older train car makes no sense. It’s better to choose a less-complicated seam: on the far side of this car in the background of the image, where the newer RAIL RUNNER cars can be seen in the distance. Use the Lasso tool with the Feather set to 0 px and make a selection of the part of the Train Middle layer that overlaps onto the Left side layer. The right side of this selection should be placed in the distance through the new train cars (see illustration).

10 MORE CUSTOM LAYER TRIMMING
Make sure that the middle layer—Train Middle—is active and press Delete (PC: Backspace) to delete the selected pixels. (In the illustration we hid the bottom layer—click on its Eye icon—to clearly show what areas were deleted.) Deselect.

Now zoom in for a closer view and make the Train Left layer active. Use the Move tool (V) and the Down and Right Arrow keys to align the layers along the seam in the background where the train cars converge.

11 AUTO-ALIGN LAYERS
In the Layers panel, click on the Train Right layer. Turn this layer’s Eye icon off and on several times and you’ll see how the locomotive isn’t aligning with the same areas on the underlying layer—this is what’s causing the alignment glitch.

Make sure the visibility for all three layers is turned on then select all three layers by clicking on the top one and then Shift-clicking on the bottom one. Choose Edit>Auto-Align Layers. In the dialog that appears, choose Auto for the Projection method and click OK.

12 AUTO-BLEND LAYERS
Now when you turn the top layer off and on, you should see that the locomotive is much more closely aligned with the layer underneath. Make sure that all three layers are still selected in the Layers panel and choose Edit>Auto-Blend Layers. In the small dialog that appears, choose the Panorama option and make sure that the Seamless Tones and Colors box is checked. Click OK. This time, the blend is successful and the alignment glitch on the top of the locomotive is no longer present.

13 RAIL RUNNER DEBRIEFING
As a final step, use the Crop tool (C) to crop the transparent areas surrounding the image.

Most of the time Photomerge works great but for those times when it doesn’t, the techniques that we’ve covered in this tutorial are some things you can try to get a better panorama merge from multiple images. For some images you may need to go even further to touch up alignment problems, for example: using the Clone Stamp (S), the Healing Brush, or creating patch layers. All are good skills and techniques to be aware of when these issues arise.

HOW TO GET GOOD MOVING WATER IN HDR

14 A SOLID NEUTRAL-DENSITY FILTER
One of the most common questions I’m asked about HDR photography is how to deal with the strange artifacts that commonly appear in moving water. I use a solid neutral-density (ND) filter to cut back several stops of light: Less light coming through the lens means the camera must use a much slower shutter speed than would normally be feasible in daylight conditions. With long shutter speeds of one second or slower, rushing water is rendered as a smooth, silky blur. Not only does this look cool, it also hides the usual HDR artifacts that often appear in moving water.

15 CREATE THE INTIAL HDR IMAGE
Let’s explore how good water can look with an HDR image made from four exposures taken in Camden, Maine. I shot the images using a 5-stop, solid ND filter with shutter speeds ranging from 1/4 second to 2 seconds.

In Bridge, select the four source exposures and choose Tools>Photoshop>Merge to HDR. When the Merge to HDR dialog appears, make sure that the Bit Depth is set to 32 Bit/Channel and click OK.

16 CONVERT TO 16 BITS
After the merge is done, choose Image>Mode>16 Bits/Channel to bring up the HDR Conversion dialog. For the Method, choose Local Adaptation from the drop-down menu. Set the Radius to 16 px, the Threshold to 0.50, and adjust the Toning Curve and Histogram curve as shown in the illustration (if you don’t see the curve, click the down-facing triangle to show it). Click OK to apply the conversion.

17 ADD SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS SMART FILTER
Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the Background layer and choose Convert to Smart Object from the menu. Then choose Image>Adjustments> Shadows/Highlights. In the dialog that appears, click the Show More Options checkbox to reveal all of the sliders and set them as shown in the illustration. This will help to balance out the tones between the bright sky and water and the rest of the image. Click OK when you’re done.

18 FINAL CURVES ADJUSTMENTS
Open the Adjustments panel, click the Create a New Curves Adjustment Layer icon, and slightly increase the contrast as shown in the Overall Contrast illustration. Add a second Curves layer and adjust the curve as in the Darken Sky illustration. Open the Masks panel and click the Invert button to invert the mask to black. With this layer mask active, use the Brush tool (B) to paint with white at 30% Opacity in the sky, trees, and rocks to darken those areas. As you can see from the detail view of the stream, the slow shutter speeds make the water look great with no visible HDR artifacts.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

Click here to download the files to follow along with this tutorial.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

Click here to download the files to follow along with this tutorial.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

soft proofing

1 COLOR PROFILES AND COLOR GAMUT
Soft proofing and color-simulation print proofing depend on the use of color profiles to simulate the appearance of an image or document as it will appear on a final output device. Both types of proofing are commonly, though not exclusively, used to predict how images and documents will ultimately print on commercial printing presses. Color profiles contain color gamut information (range of reproducible color) about both the proofing device and the final output device. The goal of the proofing process is to match the proofing colors to the gamut and appearance of the final output device.

2 SET UP ACROBAT COLOR MANAGEMENT
Activate the Preferences in Acrobat (Command-K [PC: Ctrl-K]), and click on Color Management in the Categories list on the left side of the dialog. In the Working Spaces section, select the RGB and CMYK color profiles you want to use for viewing and printing your images. We’ve selected Adobe RGB (1998) for RGB and U.S. Web Uncoated v2 for CMYK. Note: These working RGB and CMYK profiles should be consistent throughout your Creative Suite applications. You can create an initial color settings file in Photoshop and then apply that settings file to all the other Creative Suite applications through Bridge (Edit>Creative Suite Color Settings).

3 SET UP YOUR DOCUMENT VIEWING ENVIRONMENT
Create a duplicate copy of your PDF document. Then, open both documents and place them side by side on your screen, placing the proof copy to the right of the original. This will allow you to easily see the difference between the normal onscreen view and the soft proof of your final print. Scale both documents so they’re at the same dimensions. Note: For the most accurate viewing of your soft proof, you’ll want to calibrate your monitor with an external calibration device, such as the X-Rite i1Display LT, and provide a neutral gray surrounding background.

TAZ TALLY

4 ACTIVATE SOFT PROOFING
Select your right-side proofing PDF document. From the Advanced menu, choose Print Production>Output Preview. For soft-proofing print devices, select a profile from the Simulation Profile drop-down menu that matches the press and the substrate (here paper) on which you intend to print your final PDF. We selected a standard web printing press and uncoated stock profile (U.S. Web Uncoated v2). Next, check on the Simulate Paper Color checkbox. Note the Simulate Black Ink checkbox should also be automatically activated.

5 COMPARE PROOF AND ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
Once you check on the Simulate Paper Color checkbox, you should see a noticeable reduction in the overall contrast of your document and a significant decrease in the color saturation. Acrobat, using information from the U.S. Web Uncoated profile, is attempting to simulate how this document and its images will appear when printed on a standard web press with uncoated stock. Feel free to compare and contrast other output profiles such as U.S. Sheetfed Coated and the new GRACoL profiles (updated sheetfed profiles) that have just been added in version 4 of the Adobe Creative Suite.

6 SHOW OVERPRINTING AND RICH BLACKS
To view which portions of your image are set to overprint or print as rich blacks, perform the following: (1) Check on the Simulate Overprinting checkbox; (2) in the Preview section, select Color Warnings; and (3) in the Warnings section, check on the Show Overprinting and Rich Black checkboxes. By default overprinting objects will be colored yellow and rich black objects will be colored blue-green. You can adjust the color of the warnings by clicking on the swatches located to the right of each checkbox.

7 ZOOM IN TO VIEW OBJECTS
Feel free to zoom in on any of your overprinting or rich black objects to see their details. Tip: If you’re viewing multipage documents, you can simply use your Right and Left Arrows to navigate forward and backward between document pages.

8 PROOF SPECIFIC COLORS
In addition to the color-separation techniques we covered last issue, you can also use the Output Preview dialog to view any individual colors that are set to separate during printing. To view color separations, first select the Separations choice in the Preview area. Then, check on the colors you’d like to preview. We checked on the Spot and Process Black colors. If you place your cursor over a portion of the process black plate, the black (K) percentage is shown in the column located to the right of the colors column (84% in this example).

9 PROOF PROCESS PERCENTAGES
In addition to viewing individual colors, you can also proof the process (CMYK) percentages that will be used to print any process portion of your document. To view your process percentages, check on the Process Plates checkbox located at the top of the Separations list. To view the CMYK percentages in any portion of an image, simply roll your mouse over that area and the percentages will be displayed in the column located to the far right.

10 POTENTIAL SHADOW DETAIL LOSS AREAS
You can also use the Output Preview dialog to check the reproduction of shadow detail. To proof your shadow detail areas, first check on the Total Area Coverage box. Then use the % field located to the right of this checkbox to select the total ink percentage for the press and paper on which you’re printing. Use the following total ink values as a guideline: Coated Stock: 300–340; uncoated stock: 280–300; and newsprint stock: 240–260. By default, any areas of your image containing ink total volumes exceeding your numeric value will appear as bright green.

color-simulation print proofs

1 ASSIGN YOUR TARGET DEVICE
In addition to onscreen soft proofs, you can print simulated hard proofs on a device other than your final print device. If you’d like to print a hard proof on your inkjet (or other proof printer) and have it simulate the appearance on a commercial print device, begin the process by assigning your final print device (target device)—here U.S. Web Uncoated v2—in the Simulation Profile drop-down menu located in the Output Preview dialog as we did in Step 4 above. This defines the print device you want to simulate. The print dialog in the following steps will use this profile setting.

2 SELECT PRINTER AND SCALING
Choose File>Print to activate the first print dialog. From the Printer drop-down menu, choose the proofing print device (we chose EPSON Stylus Photo R2400) on which you’ll be printing the simulation of the web press with uncoated stock. Set the number of Pages to print. Choose the amount of Page Scaling (if any) required to print the entire document on the paper dimensions of your proofing device. For instance, you may need to shrink your print dimension to include printer marks on an 8.5×11″ document.

3 SELECT COLOR HANDLING
To access the Color Management controls, click on the Advanced button located near the lower-left corner of the Print dialog. From the Color Handling drop-down menu located in the Color Management category, choose where the color management (the meshing of the target and the proofing profiles) will be accomplished. Choose either Acrobat Color Management, where Acrobat will merge the two profiles, or Printer Color Management, where the meshing will occur at the printer. Usually, you’ll choose Acrobat Color Management. If your proof device has a PostScript RIP you might choose Printer Color Management. Feel free to test both results.

4 ASSIGN COLOR PROFILE AND PRINT
Next, from the Color Profile drop-down menu, choose the color profile that matches your device, paper, and print setup conditions as closely as possible. You can download these paper-/print-specific profiles from most manufacturers’ websites. Now check the crucial Apply Output Preview Settings box to activate the meshing of the proof and target profiles (in this example, Epson R2400 and U.S. Web Uncoated v2, respectively). Click the OK button to apply your Advanced dialog color-management settings. Then, click the Print button in the Print dialog to initiate the creation of a U.S. Web Uncoated simulated proof on the proofing device.

Click here to download the files to follow along with this tutorial.

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