OT: Image Editing Software Opinions, Please

Greetings from the Land of Fruits and Nuts, where we've been told there is a 
99.7% chance part of the state will be swallowed by a huge earthquake in the 
next 30 years!  Before my Western Colorado land becomes beach front 
property, I'd like to get some opinions about image editing software. 
Here's the situation:

The publisher has decided to "offer" two color ads in the back of a 
directory we publish.  Those ads that are text-only are easy in Ventura. 
However, every agency we deal with has one or more resident "artists"
that 
will give us an ad with an image that is either four color CMYK or some form 
of RGB or and embedded WordPerfect image, etc.

I know in Photo Shop you can split the color channels and then replace one 
color with another.  I've tried to do that in PhotoPaint but it either can't 
do it or *I* can't figure out how to do it.

Does anybody have or know of any Photo Shop-like software that will do what 
we need??  The boss has a real aversion to Adobe and the price tage of Photo 
Shop.  I can probably talk him into it if it's the only alternative, but I 
have to determine that is the situation.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob Weaver
Seriously graphically challenged.

Bob,

This is a very old article on how to do it in PHOTO-PAINT. As far as I know, 
the techniques used are still valid.

http://www.cedesign.com/html/zigerpawz.htm


-- 
Foster D. Coburn III
CorelDRAW Unleashed
http://www.coreldrawunleashed.com
Books, Boot Camps, Conferences and Magazines

Neil,

Thanks.

The ads are not what you'd call "high end" and most of them are free
[to 
public agencies].  I've received PowerPoint sildes, Word and WordPerfect 
docs, and many different flavors of pdf files.  While I know very little 
[relatively] about imaging, I know scads more than the folks submitting the 
ads!  When we started this exercise, it was thought [not by me] that all we 
would have to do is drop the submitted ad into a page in Ventura.  Cool if 
you're not dealing with color, but the boss then promised two colors!

Are we having fun yet?:>D

BW

"Neil Gould" <neil@terratu.com> wrote in message
news:48079a7c$1_3@cnews...
>
> Recently, Bob Weaver <bobATlawtechpublishingDOTcom@cnews1.corel.dmz>
> posted:
>
>> Greetings from the Land of Fruits and Nuts, where we've been told
>> there is a
>> 99.7% chance part of the state will be swallowed by a huge earthquake
>> in the next 30 years!  Before my Western Colorado land becomes beach
>> front property, I'd like to get some opinions about image editing
>> software. Here's the situation:
>>
>> The publisher has decided to "offer" two color ads in the
back of a
>> directory we publish.  Those ads that are text-only are easy in
>> Ventura. However, every agency we deal with has one or more resident
>> "artists" that will give us an ad with an image that is
either four
>> color CMYK or some form of RGB or and embedded WordPerfect image, etc.
>>
>> I know in Photo Shop you can split the color channels and then
>> replace one color with another.  I've tried to do that in PhotoPaint
>> but it either can't do it or *I* can't figure out how to do it.
>>
>> Does anybody have or know of any Photo Shop-like software that will
>> do what we need??  The boss has a real aversion to Adobe and the
>> price tage of Photo Shop.  I can probably talk him into it if it's
>> the only alternative, but I have to determine that is the situation.
>>
>> Any help would be appreciated.
>>
> At least your boss is willing to pay you far more than the cost of
> PhotoShop to hack a solution!  ;-)
>
> If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive application that is also
> fairly robust and able to do what you're attempting, I can recommend
> PhotoImpact. But, be forewarned that its learning curve is equal to most
> advanced image editors.
>
> All that said... doing ads as bitmapped images? Hoooboy!
>
> Best,
>
> Neil
>
>
> 

Foster,

Thanks!  I'll look it up.

BW

"Foster D. Coburn III" <foster--remove--@unleash.com> wrote in
message 
news:4807988f$1_2@cnews...
>
> Bob,
>
> This is a very old article on how to do it in PHOTO-PAINT. As far as I 
> know, the techniques used are still valid.
>
> http://www.cedesign.com/html/zigerpawz.htm
>
>
> -- 
> Foster D. Coburn III
> CorelDRAW Unleashed
> http://www.coreldrawunleashed.com
> Books, Boot Camps, Conferences and Magazines
>
>
> 

Gabor,

I'll try and answer both your posts here.

Two years ago, our publisher offered free "ads" to public safety
departments 
that were listed in our Directory of Justice Agencies. He made the offer 
without checking first to determine just how we should instruct the agencies 
as to format, etc. The "ads" are actually recruiting announcements.

When we got the first batch of submissions, they came as PowerPoint slides, 
word processing documents [with and without graphics] and a few decent 
graphic pieces.  The first printing was greyscale.  Then it was decided to 
do some two color sections in the body of the directory itself. The second 
color was used for headings and bleed tabs, and worked nicely.  Of course, 
"adding color" was the next "logical" step.

We managed to convert most of the text-based materials easily enough.  Many 
of the images were re-worked to simplify them and a local graphics person 
"fixed them" so they contained only black and cyan.  Basically we had
to 
apply the spot color model to the ads.

Now some of our dealers and local supporters of public safety want ads, too. 
They are becoming more complicated and arrive, again, in a wide variety of 
formats.  Some obviously were originally duotone pieces, however we are 
still 'stuck' with the spot process.

FWIW, the cyan plate gets printed using a PMS blue [don't have the exact 
number now] and for headings and spot color in the ads it looks nice.

We're going to have to develop some sort of easily understood specifications 
to send to everyone [should have been done at the beginning], since the 
sales of the directory don't really justify the costs of anything more 
complicated than the two color spot process.

I guess you could say that in some cases I'm trying to "make a sow's ear
out 
of a silk purse" to paraphrase.

Thanks for you information, and I will digest it and use it to hopefully 
"force" some common sense into those around me who are even more
graphically 
challenged.  By the time I get it worked out, I'll be retired on my beach 
front property in western Utah. :>)

BW


"DEAK JAHN, Gabor" <djg@tramontana.co.hu> wrote in message 
news:4807ae2b.47551937@cnews.corel.ca...
>
> On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:53:36 -0700, "Bob Weaver"
> <bobATlawtechpublishingDOTcom@cnews1.corel.dmz> wrote:
>
> Bob,
>
>> I know in Photo Shop you can split the color channels and then replace

>> one
>> color with another.  I've tried to do that in PhotoPaint but it either

>> can't
>> do it or *I* can't figure out how to do it.
>
> PhotoPaint can do just the same. But what is exactly that you want to
> accomplish? You get a CMYK picture, yes (this is already a problem in
> itself, you should get a vector format, actually, not a bitmap) but
> what color do you need to convert it to?
>
> Bye,
>  Gabor
>
> DEAK JAHN, Gabor
> Hungarian CVP Forum
> http://www.tramontana.co.hu/index_en.php
>