Pic4press

The third version of the PPA’s pic4press brochure repackages and expands on the information in previous versions. The aim of pic4press is to provide best practice guidelines to help improve the predictability and consistency of digital images for both the commissioning party and photographers. The guidelines are based on the effective use of ICC profiling and robust colour management policies. As usual, the message is very much based around communication: clear communication between commissioner and photographer will save time and money. Agree specifications up front; use these guidelines to help.

We very much welcome feedback and will be endeavouring to further improve relations with other photography and technical bodies to ensure a consistent message is put out across the industry. The www.pass4press.com website contains more pic4press information along with detailed information on PDF creation.

The pic4press Version 3 guidelines are geared towards magazines produced on Lightweight Coated (LWC) and Mediumweight Coated (MWC) stocks. The first part of this brochure aims to put the commissioning, supply and receipt phases into a logical order, and to suggest best practices for each area of the workflow. Refer to the diagram on pages 6-7 that graphically demonstrates a typical image workflow. The second section, starting on page 14, explains some of the more complex areas to do with managing colour using ICC profiles and how to optimise RGB to CMYK conversions.