A monitor makes colour by emitting light. Paper makes it by absorbing some wavelengths and reflecting others. These are not two ways of doing the same thing, and the gap between them is where illustrated books go wrong.
Where the gap is widest
A screen can display colours a press cannot reproduce, and the discrepancy is not evenly distributed. It is worst in exactly the places that matter most to photographers.
Deep blacks. A screen shows near-black as genuinely near-black. Ink on paper reaches a maximum density that is usually a very dark grey. Images that depend on rich blacks lose the most.
Saturated blues and greens. Both sit outside the printable range at high saturation and will shift, usually towards something duller and slightly different in hue.
Shadow separation. Distinct tones in a dark area on screen can collapse into a single mass in print. This is what ruins low-light photography.
What managing it involves
Working in the right colour space from the start, rather than converting at the end. Late conversion produces unpredictable shifts because the software is guessing at intent.
Soft-proofing — simulating the press on a calibrated screen. Useful for spotting problems early, but still a simulation.
A physical proof. Printed on the actual paper, with the actual press profile. This is the only thing that tells you the truth.
Paper changes everything
The same file on coated and uncoated stock produces genuinely different images. Coated paper holds ink on the surface, giving sharper detail and higher saturation. Uncoated absorbs it, softening detail and muting colour — which can be lovely for illustration and is usually wrong for photography.
Weight matters too. Lighter stock shows through, which is a real problem when images sit back to back.
What a proof round actually looks like
Expect two or three. A typical sequence: the first proof reveals the blacks are lifting; adjustments are made; the second proof fixes the blacks but introduces a cast in one sequence; the third, sometimes on different stock, holds both.
Review proofs in daylight, not under office lighting, and compare them against reference prints you trust rather than against your monitor.
The rule
We do not send an illustrated book to press without a physical proof approved by the author. It adds a fortnight and some cost. It is the difference between the book you meant to make and the one you find out about when the boxes arrive.
Ines Okonjo
Art Director
Part of the editorial team at Winfrey Publishing. Articles here are written by the people who do the work, not by a content agency.
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