Archive | July, 2009

Honey, You’re Really Not Good with Colors

28 Jul

Okay, that’s not fair. D has never liked my choice of colors. I reckon he’s just too conventional and safe. But when I realized what he was talking about, my heart sank.

He’s looking at his LCD screen, looking at my website–this website–and at the horrible, glaring colors of my invitation templates.

Wait! Glaring? What do you mean glaring?

I looked at the same website on my laptop. It’s not glaring. It’s the perfect shade of apple green and chocolate brown. Not glaring.

I checked my files, my JPGs, my AIs, my PDFs. The colors are what they should be. I copied the same files on a shared folder and viewed them on his computer. They’re glaring. We synced our computers with adobeRGB1998 profile for color management display setting (whatever that means). We rebooted [our PCs]. Then I checked again. On my side, it’s still apple green and chocolate brown. On his side, it’s still glaring neon yellow green and glaring neon chocolate brown. Yes, chocolate brown can glare.

My last resort was to go outside the room and check it on the computer in the sala. It’s not as glaring as on D’s screen. But the fact remains: that what I’m seeing on my screen is probably not what some of you are seeing at your end.

So what did it?

My poor ability to discern which colors look good together? My crappy laptop screen? My color mode? (I’m on CMYK when creating these templates. CMYK is for printers while RGB is for the web. D said it’s possible that my color concoctions are not web safe colors hence the glare. But why are they not glaring on my screen???).

But the meatier question is, “What should I do about it?”

I don’t know!!!

Should I take down all the invite images? Make two files for printing and web display? Edit the color mode of all AI files? Save everything as JPGs and PDFs all over again? Do I actually have time for that?

Should I just print each and every template? Take pictures? And post these pictures instead of JPG-fied version of the templates? Do I actually have funds for those papers and inks?

Or maybe. . . have you got any suggestions? I’m really stumped here. This whole color thing is dampening my assumed creative spirit. Arrggh!

So if you’re shielding your eyes while viewing my website and wondering why I’m using these shocking colors, (although bold and vibrant colors are no longer stranger to weddings nowadays), be more forgiving. I may not be THAT good with colors, and swirls and curls and flowers. But I’m not THAT terrible to use those colors glaring in your face right now.

I’ll sort this out. Hopefully.