CMYK

While I was procrastinating, I mean, uh, preparing to review Deke's latest chapter on printing, I came accross this amazing video on the Huffington Post via Laughing Squid. I realized a few things:

• You may feel entitled to peruse the blogs on Sunday morning, but if you have work to do, something will insidiously remind you.
• Watching ink be made to classical music can be sexier and make you hungrier than any video featuring actual sex or food. I'll never read the letters CMYK again without thinking of those barrels pouring out their shiny, candy-like contents, and possibly wanting to drink and/or bathe in them.
• People who are passionate about what they do (like the guy featured in this video) are inspiring in a way that gives you hope that focus, dedication, and love will get you through the most daunting of tasks, complex of problems, or murky of futures.

I dare you to start this video and turn away before it's over. Good Sunday to you all. Read more » 

All of my One-on-One products---whether videos or books---begin by encouraging you to adjust your Creative Suite color settings and load my custom keyboard shortcuts. The color settings file goes by the name Best Workflow (because, I argue, that's the resulting environment); the keyboard shortcuts are dekeKeys.

I've received requests to distribute both. Which is the purpose of today's post.

I explain how to make your own Best Workflow color settings today. I'll post dekeKeys CS5 as a free download next week. Read more » 

Hello deKats and deKittins, coming to you from a very relaxed place this week. I have no idea why. I guess it's just because it's me and my good buddy Deke, in a show where Deke does what Deke does best, go all-nerdy on some obscure issue related to graphics. This week it's trapping, that technique of building in a buffer zone in a CMYK print that's there just in case (inevitably) that the plate registration doesn't quite line up. And it's a good thing one of us is relaxed because you know how this kind of stuff gets Deke going.

But as (ahem) much as that sounds like print-nerd geekery, it actually turns out to be a very informative discussion. We cover print methods, color separation, and how you get what you pay for. We've had such exhilarating conversations with notable renegades lately, on what's ahead for Photoshop and Lightroom, and the future, and and living on the moon. I gotta tell you though, it's pretty nice to discuss old school craftsmanship with the man. Deke that is. Read more » 

Hello, friends. Deke here this week. (Colleen is buried hundreds of pages deep inside a book we hope to one day call Photoshop Elements 8 One-on-One, which is slated for delivery next month. Poor dear; book writing is such torment.) And so it is my esteemed privilege to present you with Martini Hour 036, the last dekeLounge-recorded Martini Hour before we embark on a long series of shows captured live and loose from Las Vegas. Baby.

This week's C&D-only show features a question from a caller who fails to identify herself. I dub her Daffodil because she sounds so sweet and pretty and harmless. But Daffodil's question is about the most horrifying one we've encountered, perfect for Halloween: Why is it that Pantone spot colors look one way in Illustrator and InDesign, and another in Photoshop? And how in the world do you correct this problem?

By way of example, we take on Pantone 172: Is it Pumpkin or Grenadine? (See the swatches in the graphic, top left. I mean, holy shit, how different are those?)

Read more »