Many people run into problems when they print something. The print is too 'contrasty', the mid-tones are muddy, things like that. This course is intended to address those problems, show you why they arise, and show you how to fix them.

There are 12 videos in this series.

The first few look at the problems caused by the printing process: For instance, all images begin life displaying 'RGB' color, but a vast range of those can't be printed. In order to print successfully, these colors must be changed to something within the printable range, CMYK.

The other main problem is 'dot-gain', which adds varying degrees of density to the mid-tone range. This is where apps such as Adobe Photoshop CC shine. Here you can choose a 'CMS' – a Color Management System - that is added to your images and changes how they behave when printed. Basically, you can decide how much lighter you want the mid-tones to be before being printed so that the changes caused by the printing process actually bring it back up to exactly what you want. It's brilliant, so long as you know what you're doing.

You can even create your own CMS, and then use Adobe Bridge apply it to all your Adobe graphics apps (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat) simultaneously - then everything, even the PDF end result, is treated in the same way.

The videos also cover 'resolution' issues, which determine how much detail is visible in the end result, whether it's for web, digital print, or commercial offset printing.

Then we go through the actual calibration process itself: First, dealing with the shadows and highlights on a grayscale image, then the highlights on a CMYK image. You don't need to worry about shadows on those, as Photoshop takes care of it for you.

Finally, we make a PDF of the result.