Untitled Document

The series opens with a discussion of the most common user mistakes that cause jobs to image improperly.

In response to complaints from the editor that the first column wasn’t technical enough, Dan retaliates with the first user-oriented examination of what Gray Component Replacement is and does, and what types of image it is suitable for.

The many uses of the black channel were highlighted in this groundbreaking column. It, together with the previous column, represent the only writing from this period that has survived nearly intact all the way to Professional Photoshop Fifth Edition (2006).

With PageMaker and QuarkXPress nearing maturity, Dan organizes a shootout between the two and a high-end typesetting package of the late 1980s.

As the need for new and more legible typefaces grows, two companies introduce font-morphers, while Adobe proposes Multiple Master, where countless variants can be spun off a single type family. Dan uses one program to generate a face midway between Bodoni and Times Roman. He called it “Mugwump Roman”, because

It straddles the fence between two contradictory positions, with its mug on one side and its wump on the other, looking forlornly in every direction at once, without a future because it has no past, an ugly child tormented by competing, incompatible memories of its elegant, eminent parents.

“Color by the numbers,” the assumed foundation for all professional retouching work today, originated with this column. In an age when color correction was thought to be impossibly complex, few people used curves, and there was almost no awareness of the pivotal importance of highlight and shadow settings, Dan rocked the industry with,

Monkeying around with\ the color balance of photographic images is not a sport for the timid, or so goes the conventional wisdom...And yet, ninety percent of color correction could be handled by monkeys...The rules for this ninety percent of color are so simple that they can be stated in one sentence: Use the full range of available tones every time, and don’t give the viewers any colors that they will know better than to believe.

The steeper the curve, the more the contrast. Every professional knows this mantra today, but in 1994 the concept had never been heard of. It originates from this column, the continuation of the previous one.

Questions and answers from readers punctuate a discussion of current Photoshop technique.

Beginners make beginner mistakes. The mistakes that experienced artists make can be so sophisticated that a beginner would never think of making them. This columns showcases horrors that only an expert graphic artist could execute.

Color is notoriously subjective; your client may like images that you don’t, and vice versa. But some items are notsubjective, but rather outright errors. Nobody wants these errors in their file. If you are a prepress house, how do you know whether your version is good enough to send out to a client for approval?

The advent of royalty-free stock photography, unlimited use, on CD sent a shock wave through the photographic industry. Most of these CDs retailed at $300 or more for 100 images, or several dollars per shot in quantity. But some vendors were willing to take a chance on a far lower price. This column explores what a 1995 customer could expect when spending 10 cents per image for unlimited use.

Kodak Photo CD was a novel process that allowed high-quality scans at a fraction of the cost of drum scanning. However, it did not permit adjustments on the part of the scanner operator, so that any defect had to be corrected in Photoshop, an uncommon request for most professionals at that time. The recipe offered here is the first to suggest the use of LAB in color correction.

Desktop publishing required that users learn how to trap their graphics, building in intentional overlaps as a safety measure against misregistration on press. Dan explains how the complicated concept works, opening with this warning,

Trap is like a split infinitive: an overrated fine point, much fussed over by purists,capable of striking fear of seeming ignorant into the hearts of the misunderstanding majority.

In reading an essay by the great authority on grammar and usage, H.W. Fowler, I was struck by the exactness of the parallel. Substitute trap for split infinitive, and save me the trouble of paraphrasing.

“The English-speaking world,” he wrote, “may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but who care very much; (3) those who know & condemn; (4) those who know &approve; & (5) those who know &distinguish.”

This attractive and oft-quoted column was chosen to be the opening chapter of the book Makeready (1996), which is the source of the version chosen here.

This is a time in which RGB users are suddenly being asked to deliver files in CMYK. The column discusses why in such cases it’s also usually best to correct in CMYK.

Typeface design is an art form, and like other art forms it follows certain trends. This column explores the fashion in letterform design for the early 1990s.

One of the most popular of Dan’s columns enlists Sherlock Holmes, Ellery Queen, Hercule Poirot, and Lord Peter Wimsey to investigate an artist’s claim that the prepress house is sabotaging his work. We present the expanded version that ran in Dan’s Makeready book. There is also a second half, of dialog with readers, to this section.

Professional Photoshop (1994) was the first publication to devote significant analysis to the quality and future of digital photography, then a niche field. Less than two years later, at the time this column was written, digicams were still too slow to capture anything that moves, yet the writing was on the wall. As most professional photographers refused to read it, Dan read them the Riot Act:

When a compatible and user-friendly better way emerges, those in the way of the locomotive had best watch out. That is the position of photographers today. They stand on the tracks, and the train of the digital revolution is headed right at them. Two of their choices are quite unpalatable. They can remain where they are and find out who will survive the inevitable collision. They can also cede their territory and their business, by stepping aside.

There exists, however, a third alternative: getting a running start, so that when the train roars by they can jump on board.There are those who pooh-pooh this, just as the type houses did a few years back, pointing out the many areas in which conventional photography is, at least for the moment, undeniably superior. Regrettably, this is irrelevant...

Incorrigible conservatives will undoubtedly go down without ever even knowing their enemy. The great majority, however, now face the crucial decision. If they can bring themselves to reflect upon what has happened to others, and why, they will survive. If not, we will all see a demonstration of a notorious corollary to Santayana’s wisdom: that when history repeats itself, it does so first as tragedy, then as farce.

The first of a pair introducing a unified strategy for the use of LAB in color correction and retouching. The two columns, exploring an area unknown at the time of their publication, were the direct antecedent of the 2005 Photoshop LAB Color.

Advanced uses of LAB, particularly complex curves.

Dan’s review of the first Photoshop upgrade since layering was introduced.

Dan makes the by-the-numbers concept even simpler, with a column aimed at the fearful, writing

Serious graphic artists, as a rule, are not buffaloed by complexity, and try to get full value from the most powerful features of the programs they use...The glaring exception to this rule, the obvious case where many of us fail, from sheer terror, to adopt a method that the entire world knows to be superior, is the use of curves in color correction. As the first to document this particular disease, I get to name it, and Ibelieve it should be called kampyliaphobia...

When fifth and subsequent inks are added to the customary CMYK, the purpose is usually to guarantee accuracy in printing a logo or other vector graphic element. But the extra ink can also be useful in improving photographs. The column discusses how to make the bump plates that exploit the advantage.

When we have to reproduce prescreened artwork, the angle of the output becomes critical. This column shows how to manipulate it, along with a half-page warning toQuark that its domination in the professional page-layout market is in danger.

Continuing the previous column, Dan discusses factors that cause moiré, and retouching techniques that may defeat them.

After the demise of Computer Artist, “Makeready” moves to Electronic Publishing,with a column highlighting the difficulties of a system that refers to several different kinds of resolution with the confusing phrase dots per inch. This column developed into a chapter in the second three editions of Professional Photoshop; here, we have linked it to the chapter from PP4E.

The story of a minister whose religion drove him to extract the data from Adobe fonts and market them under a different name.

Modern unsharp masking practice began with this seminal exploration of what the filter does, the things that can go wrong, and how to work around them.

Today, all serious users know when to sharpen individual channels rather than the document as a whole. This column laid the foundation.

There’s no best way to move an RGB file into CMYK, given that it’s impossible to preserve the most brilliant colors. But should we always try to match the RGB colors if possible?Or should we tone some of them down, to distinguish them from the more brilliant colors that can’t be matched?

With help from Emily Dickinson, Dan launches a three-part series that introduces channel blending as an aid to color correction with a discussion of the weak, or unwanted, color and how to improve its detail.

Simple recipes for channel blending continue with an exploration of how the RGB and CMYchannels are cognates.

For images that lack snap, channel blending can be the right play. Those who don’t investigate blends across colorspaces are making bets without looking at all the cards in their hand.

The secrets of producing legible text type by manipulating the hyphenation and justification settings of the leading page-layout applications.

In product shots, or any other image with a prominent foreground object, the path of least resistance is often the indirect one of working on the background. Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, and other military strategists offer advice on how to plan the campaign.

One photograph, many ideas. How many directions can one image take? A sunset, a stormy sky, a rock climber, a rolling river, and a dozen graphic artists offer a roadmap.

All print jobs are to some extent a crapshoot. Unexpected happenings are only to be expected. but with careful adjustments of Photoshop’s dot gain settings, the odds can be improved.

Dan challenges readers to calibrate their system to match the printing conditions found in the magazine.

Likely Dan’s most quoted piece, this double-length commemoration of the turn of the millennium points out the importance of the graphic arts in the development of human culture. It includes Dan's choices for the visual artists of the decade, the century, and the millennium, as well as similar selections for the face (both human and typographical), the businessperson, and the stupidest mistake of each time period.

Read this column in Spanish.

When taking a color image into grayscale, realize that some channels are more equal than other. Find out which one is your enemy, and proceed to eliminate it.

Why the Auto Levels command works so well for users who aren’t sophisticated, and what it means for those who are.

The many uses of Luminosity, the mode that ignores color changes while allowing enhancement of detail.

In a heartrending double-length column wrapped around the correction of a single difficult photograph, Dan discusses his relationship with, and the progression of the fatal disease of, his long-time editor Tom McMillan.

Recent courtroom developments in the field of copyright show a tendency by judges to trust their noses rather than the law, and indicate that the system favors the well-off.

One good (Photoshop 6), one bad (Illustrator 9) and one nonexistent (PressReady 2) upgrade provoke a column about where such upgrades fit into the vendors’ strategies, and ours.

The easy way to make radical changes in the color of products.

The advent of consumer-priced digicams that are capable of professional-quality captures, and the sad truth about what it means to the beleaguered professional photographer. Plus, a full-page look at three ways to upsize an image.

Read this column in Portuguese.

Readers feast on a bowl of SNAP, GRACOL, and SWOP in this survey the role of standards-setting organizations in commercial printing

The introduction of a powerful method of starting a correction: the creative use of the Assign Profile command.

The black channel of CMYK and its seemingly magical power in enhancing shadow detail.

The first of two columns on how to retouch deceptively concentrates on layer masking and Overlay blending.

From smoothing a complexion to coercing the viewer into perceiving more vivid color, four blending modes stand out as retouching powerhouses. Includes Dan’s recipe for redeye reduction.

The fiftieth “Makeready”, plus the author’s birthday, offer an occasion for a look back at the column’s development.

Read the above column in Russian.

Dan blasts the the anticompetitive features of Photoshop 7.0.

A discussion of why Corel’s Photo-Paint program has never been a competitor to Photoshop.

A year after 9/11, the graphic arts industry is recovering somewhat better than the world is. Plus, caustic comments on the corrective update Photoshop 7.0.1.

Why overselection is a bad thing, and how the best selections are usually based on existing channels.

Read the above column in Russian.

The previous column continues with a look at stealing channels from different colorspaces, or by making false corrections to a copy of an image.

This column introduces (courtesy of bridge authority S.J. Simon, but transplanted to the graphic arts) the unforgettable Unlucky Expert, whose technique and technical knowledge are flawless, but who is consistently let down by his partners. Here, he is falls victim to a client who unexpectedly changed printers, another who gave him a job in a foreign language, and a third whose Photoshop Color Settings were incorrect.

The Unlucky Expert’s adventures continue, as his partners in catalog reproduction, color management, and gray component replacement all derail his work. Simon, in his bridge book, explains how it always happens:“The Unlucky Expert is so good that he cannot bring himself to realize how bad other players can be. Either that, or he is determined to punish them for it—even when they are his partners. He will not bring his game down to their level—they must lift theirs to his.”

On the occasion of the column's tenth anniversary, a trip to Yosemite provokes a discussion of why we bother to color-correct images at all.

Columns that eventually form the backbone of the 2005 bestseller Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace begin with, what else, a canyon and an explanation of the simplest LABcurves.

Why LAB’s separation of color and contrast make it the best choice for these two critical operations.

Pure pastel colors are rarely reproducible in print, yet are common in nature. This column discusses how to handle shocking pinks when they occur.

A series of industry-shaking events were about to take place. This column discusses why most professionals would be moving from QuarkXPress to InDesign, how Macintosh OSX finally was taking off in the professional community after languishing for nearly five years, and the new features of Adobe’s first release of the Creative Suite package.

The formless, blurry A and B channels seem like the last thing one would ever use to blend with. But in a mode where 50% grays are ignored, anything can happen.

A fascinating look at how image quality is evaluated by a jury of the color-blind.

Introduction of a new technique: using inverted, blurred overlays to enhance highlight and/or shadow detail.

An in-depth study of the Shadow/Highlight command.

The theoretical basis of unsharp masking, and its relation to blurring, opening with a tour de force: an image sharpened using only the Gaussian Blur filter (plus a series of blends).

When trying to add snap and color depth, but you don’t know how much, consider adding the maximum possible and then dialing back the opacity. It may make fleshtones look Martian, but that's only temporary.

A powerful method of separating similar colors using LAB curves.

How colors that are theoretical only, impossible even to imagine, can be used to solve difficult retouching and sharpening problems.

The AB channels of LAB can provide the best start for selections and masks.

When images need to be corrected through a mask, it’s often best to base the mask on color, not detail.

Commercial printing is inherently unpredictable, but experts know how to take insurance against the ugliest possibilities.

Why RGB-oriented users need to have a little bit of CMYK in their toolkit.

The series closes by revealing the secret of how a black channel is made, and how to use it to enhance shadow detail.