02-03-2012, 08:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-03-2012, 04:02 PM by Robert Darwent.)
Colour matching the dial
The artwork is now complete but only in terms of detail, below is the same artwork with the legend colours and background shade visually approximated to those used in an original dial;
Note: The colour shades displayed on your particular monitor will in all probability be quite different to those displayed by mine. Similarly, zooming into the images will show jagged legends and other detail simply because the images have been reduced in resolution for the forum. The original artworks are 6786 x 6786 pixels in size at 600dpi resolution and display no such 'blockiness' when printed.
Just as the colours displayed vary from monitor to monitor, so do the actual colours that are printed by a particular printer. I only use inkjet's, so my comments specifically refer to those types. Other types of printer are probably the same but I have no experience to confirm whether that is the case.
To illustrate what I mean, below is the same artwork as the last with the colours and background shades altered so that my printer actually prints the dial with the correct colours on to photo-paper;
You can see that the colours displayed on the monitor are quite different to those actually printed out by the printer. In order to achieve the correct colour values required I first printed several colour swatches, such as the one shown below;
These swatches are freely available on the internet, but in any case it is easy enough to create your own. Each square of colour has its RGB values printed on it, and when printed by your printer will give you a permanent reference chart so you can determine exactly how your own printer will produce a specific colour combination. When doing this be sure to print on exactly the same sort of paper and with the same printer settings as those you intend to print the artworks with or the resulting colour chart will be invalid.
The problem of colour matching is not only confined to the differences between what a particular monitor displays and what a particular printer actually produces.
It is a fact that the human eye perceives colour hue and saturation differently in response to contrast. Put in terms of colour matching a reproduction dial, if a dial artwork is viewed against a light backdrop then the shade used for the background of the dial will appear darker than if the same is viewed against a dark backdrop.
I had not realised just how striking this effect can be until I began experimenting with printing out my artworks. Often the background shade of the artwork that came out of the printer looked too dark, against the white of the photo paper I was using, until I trimmed and test fitted it into an actual bakelite case when the same dial background then looked too light.
To overcome this problem I created a graphic version of a bakelite A22 case, accurate in all respects, that I could test fit the artworks 'virtually' before physically printing them out. This method is not perfect, but what it does do very well is give a close 'ball-park' figure for the RGB colour values of the required background shade for the artwork. It is then a case of 'tweaking' this value until a final shade is found that is visually pleasing and acceptable.
Below is the completed A22T dial, printed and laminated ready for trimming;
And the virtual brown/bronze case I created with the completed A22T dial artwork test fitted;
Hopefully, when the project is fully complete, the replica A22T will look something along the lines of the above image.
Next instalment; - Calculating the SW aerial/oscillator coils.
The artwork is now complete but only in terms of detail, below is the same artwork with the legend colours and background shade visually approximated to those used in an original dial;
Note: The colour shades displayed on your particular monitor will in all probability be quite different to those displayed by mine. Similarly, zooming into the images will show jagged legends and other detail simply because the images have been reduced in resolution for the forum. The original artworks are 6786 x 6786 pixels in size at 600dpi resolution and display no such 'blockiness' when printed.
Just as the colours displayed vary from monitor to monitor, so do the actual colours that are printed by a particular printer. I only use inkjet's, so my comments specifically refer to those types. Other types of printer are probably the same but I have no experience to confirm whether that is the case.
To illustrate what I mean, below is the same artwork as the last with the colours and background shades altered so that my printer actually prints the dial with the correct colours on to photo-paper;
You can see that the colours displayed on the monitor are quite different to those actually printed out by the printer. In order to achieve the correct colour values required I first printed several colour swatches, such as the one shown below;
These swatches are freely available on the internet, but in any case it is easy enough to create your own. Each square of colour has its RGB values printed on it, and when printed by your printer will give you a permanent reference chart so you can determine exactly how your own printer will produce a specific colour combination. When doing this be sure to print on exactly the same sort of paper and with the same printer settings as those you intend to print the artworks with or the resulting colour chart will be invalid.
The problem of colour matching is not only confined to the differences between what a particular monitor displays and what a particular printer actually produces.
It is a fact that the human eye perceives colour hue and saturation differently in response to contrast. Put in terms of colour matching a reproduction dial, if a dial artwork is viewed against a light backdrop then the shade used for the background of the dial will appear darker than if the same is viewed against a dark backdrop.
I had not realised just how striking this effect can be until I began experimenting with printing out my artworks. Often the background shade of the artwork that came out of the printer looked too dark, against the white of the photo paper I was using, until I trimmed and test fitted it into an actual bakelite case when the same dial background then looked too light.
To overcome this problem I created a graphic version of a bakelite A22 case, accurate in all respects, that I could test fit the artworks 'virtually' before physically printing them out. This method is not perfect, but what it does do very well is give a close 'ball-park' figure for the RGB colour values of the required background shade for the artwork. It is then a case of 'tweaking' this value until a final shade is found that is visually pleasing and acceptable.
Below is the completed A22T dial, printed and laminated ready for trimming;
And the virtual brown/bronze case I created with the completed A22T dial artwork test fitted;
Hopefully, when the project is fully complete, the replica A22T will look something along the lines of the above image.
Next instalment; - Calculating the SW aerial/oscillator coils.
