I'm running into a problem with my (ageing, I know) Corel 11 suite, and I've been unable to come up with a satisfying explanation as to what happens, and perhaps even more important, solve it. The issue deals with colour management.
I have recently had to reinstall my system from scratch and thought it a good idea to set up colour management properly this time as it was more or less a weird hodgepodge on the old system. It's running XP SP3 now. I installed the vendor-supplied colour profile for my LCD monitor, obtained Microsoft's Color Settings for XP control panel program, and using that linked monitor and profile together---all easy and straightforward. Then I opened Corel's Color Mangement window, selected my monitor profile in the appropriate drop-down menu, activated the arrow pointing from the Internal RGB to the Monitor icons... and noticed that all bright RGB colours in several of my projects became dull and washed-out, as if I had applied a RGB->CMYK conversion step. The remained bright as ever if I disabled the path between Internal RGB and Monitor icons. And that is something I don't understand.
I mean, obviously there is some conversion of colour going on. But why is there a conversion in the first place? The monitor can display typical hard RGB colours like (0,255,0), (0, 255, 255) and (255, 0, 255) just fine. I would expect there to be some loss of colour near the extremes of the gamut, but not to the point where everything becomes as dull as a CMYK image. That brings me to my second question: did I set up everything allright then? Isn't for example telling the OS to associate the monitor with a colour profile and then activating a colour correction in Corel overkill? If so, what then of simulating printed output on-screen? That requires a path to the monitor to be active again, too.
Perhaps I'm overthinking things, but still I would very much like to know what is going on here.
OK, you look like a thinking person so I'll tel you that you didn't over think this. First if you're serious about color management my book is available at www.graphictechnology.com , the site it temporarily OOC and will be back up by Tuesday.
I'm betting that your running with the default CMYK work space. Under the tools menu /color management set to use RGB as the rendering, activate internal RGB to the monitor and to the separations printer ONLY. Double click the RGB icon and set the rendering to perceptual and Kodak CMM is OK.
Internal RGB sRGB and a CMYK profile that is good for your area, U.S. Coated V2 for North America, set the monitor profile. Do this for CorelDRAW and Photo-PAINT
David Milisock
Thanks for the reply, David. I'll be sure to look into your book once the site is back up. I wasn't quite sure what you meant with 'default CMYK work space', as I couldn't locate anything resembling this in the Color Management window. However it did force me to pay attention elsewhere, and eventually I hit upon the solution: for the projects which changed colour so dramatically I had selected colours from the 'default palette'---which out of the box is, of course, CMYK based. Turn on monitor correction, and hey presto, dull colour. I created a little doodle using RGB colours, and hey presto, no dull colour. It's all very logical in hindsight; I just hadn't realised how deeply colour management affects Corel.
Perhaps this is what you meant with 'default CMYK work space', and perhaps you didn't; either way, thanks for providing me with a nudge.
I'm sorry Corel 11 is an RGB only work space more then likely it was a soft proofing issue. CorelDRAW X3 abd X4 default to a CMYK work space.