Background Color In Photoshop

[gcanyon]

Because of the limited number of layouts in MyPublisher, I am doing my own layouts in photoshop, saving them as jpg files, and then putting them into the book as a single page. My question is this: what is the exact colors of white, black and gray? Is black = R-0, G-0, B-0? Is white = R-255, G-255, B-255? Is grey R-128, G-128, B-128? I want the background color of the images I am created to match those used by MyPublisher. Thanks for the help.

[irusan]

You are correct about white and black, but there is a wide gamut of greys that are available.

Check out Cloford.com (http://www.cloford.com/resources/colours/500col.htm) for a list of colors and their values.

HTH,

Rob

[irusan]

Let me add a bit more to this.

In the RGB color model, white is R=255, G=255, B=255. each of the three colors (Red, Green, Blue) have 256 shades (0-255). The mixing of these gives us the wide gamut of the RGB color model.

Black, on the other hand, is R=0, G=0, B=0 (the complete absence of all colors). Gray can be a multitude of shades and tones. Mid-level gray, which in photography is 18% gray (not 50%), would be closer to R=46, G=46, B=46.

You are pretty safe using white and black to match, but it is not perfect. Putting a white background in an image that will print on white paper does not mean that the transition from the printed white to the paper will be seamless. Just because the paper is white, it may be a different shade of white. Different shades of black are even more pronounced.

Additionally, even if you perfectly match the white to the paper, it can still look different if the paper is a satin or semi-gloss finish and the ink is matte.

That's why I would strongly recommend, if you require constant color backgrounds throughout, to lay everything out in Photoshop or another image editing tool and save it as a full size image (including bleed) and only use the full page image throughout your book.

It will be extra work on your part, but it will also ensure a consistent color background throughout your book. You can even save the presets in Photoshop so that creating the full page image that you will copy your actual pictures onto only requires a couple of mouse clicks.

HTH,

Rob