RGB vs CMYK vs LAB vs Multichannel

[Daniel Andrews]

Some questions brought up as of late. Some I have a vague Idea, but i'll write this to gain answers for anyone else who may need some quick answers/ref regarding these modes.


1. What are the specific differences between each Color Modes. (Answer): http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=433754&seqNum=6http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=433754&seqNum=6

2. How important and What are some of the typical standards modes for different jobs. Such as Digital art for print, making texture maps.

3. Is there one specific mode which is best to start your image with.

4. When Converting from one mode to the other, what kind of tone or color changes can I expect to have.

Please add more questions, if you deem them relevant.
Thanks.

[bizarre]

Some questions brought up as of late. Some I have a vague Idea, but i'll write this to gain answers for anyone else who may need some quick answers/ref regarding these modes.


1. What are the specific differences between each Color Modes. (Answer): http://www.adobepress.com/articles/a...33754&seqNum=6http://www.adobepress.com/articles/a...33754&seqNum=6

You got it. RGB is basically the visible light spectrum of tv screens or computer monitors. If your final media format will be a tv screen or a monitor, stick to RGB, as in websites, videogames, video.

2. How important and What are some of the typical standards modes for different jobs. Such as Digital art for print, making texture maps.
print uses CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) because most high-volume printing hardware use 4 separate colors and that's how they work.

basically:

print: CMYK
on-screen: RGB

3. Is there one specific mode which is best to start your image with.
start with whatever your final image format will need. print: cmyk. on-screen: rgb
4. When Converting from one mode to the other, what kind of tone or color changes can I expect to have.
You can use PANTONE colors, which will always be the same, to alleviate a lot of issues. I used PANTONE swatch legends when I was printing, basically it doesn't matter what it looks like on your screens (every single computer monitor will look slightly different.) You can get ahold of PANTONE books, which are printed booklets of every PANTONE code and what color it is, so you know exactly what that color SHOULD look like when it's printed.
Please add more questions, if you deem them relevant.
Thanks.

Hope you got some info from my mumbling.

[Daniel Andrews]

I appreciate the response. Thanks for taking the time to Answer, and expand on the Pantone colors.