Inspiring

Question

Action for dealing with Total Ink Coverage in Photoshop

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
September 20, 2022
2 replies
2296 views

Hi guys,

I've recently discovered this amazing article that explains how to deal with Total Area Coverage (or TIC) for prepress issues.
The procedure is fine, effective and everything, I love it, but… recording the steps within an PS.Action doesn't work. I've done many Actions before, but here, it seems there's a problem with recording the selections, layers and so on.

I don't understand why it doesn't work and wonder whether I need to think about writing a proper script to achieve the same result or if there is another way to create that Action (more simple to use).

What do you guys think about it ?

I'm talking about this article
https://creativepro.com/reducing-total-ink-with-selective-color-adjustments-in-photoshop/

Thanks for any intake/ idea/ light or existing solution ^^
Fred

This topic has been closed for replies.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

And for CMYK to CMYK conversions there exist Device Link Profiles which can change TAC while maintaining pure blacks, primaries, …

If you insist on the Selective Color Layer-approach you may want to cosnider using Blend if-settings instead of a Layer Mask.

Fred.LAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the answers guys,

I actually didn't know about Device Link profiles. I'm definitely gonna have a look at them.

@c.pfaffenbichler

What do you mean by using Blend-ins?

would you mind telling me more about it?

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

@Fred.L

Many years ago I intended a 3-part series on the layer option blend-if sliders... And stalled after part 1!

https://web.archive.org/web/20100116171247fw_/http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/blendif.html

Take note of the animated GIF files illustrating the text.

TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

My best advice is to ignore that piece utterly. TAC is an attribute of the ICC output profile for conversion to CMYK; get the ideal (correct) profile that defines those conditions and just use that.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

Fred.LAuthor

Inspiring

Hi,
Thanks for the answer 😉

I would have loved to agree with you, cause it would mean things could be kept simple. But it's not in our business, I'm sorry.

I understand that icc profiles are meant to deal with that kind of stuff but it would be a big mistake to blindly rely on them because of one simple question : How do they they reduce the TAC ? What if the files are in RGB, CMYK? have a dominant color etc. We could also simply use the function "Apply Color custom CMYK Profile in PS, set up 300% TAC and Bang! Done". Somethimes it "works", sometimes it kills your picture, turning blacks into bad greyish colors. Not acceptable at all. Dealing with TAC is no easy business and doing it the wrong way can definitely kill the aspect of your image.

Long story short, it's safer to handle the images manually and the article provided above is by far the best option I've found so far. The only downside of it… I can't make an PS.Action out of the the procedure

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

I understand that icc profiles are meant to deal with that kind of stuff but it would be a big mistake to blindly rely on them because of one simple question : How do they they reduce the TAC ?

You do not seem to quite understand Color Management.

The TAC is applied in the conversion from the profile connection space to the target CMYK space addording to the parameters in the ICC Profile.

With RGB (and Lab obviously) to CMYK-conversions that is unproblematic. (Edit: Because the Color Space’s TAC will simply not be exceeded that way.)

With CMYK to CMYK-conversions it can be problematic because it can dirty up primary colors and make grayscale compenents 4C-gray.

(Banding can happen in both cases.)

But if CMYK-to-CMYK is a frequent task for you you may want to look into Device Link Profiles and purchase software for their creation, because they only connect one specific Color Space to one other specific Color Space.

The old Custom CMYK is best avoided altogether.

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