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Image Manipulation and Colour Management

Open your scanned artwork into an image manipulation program on your computer. This would be a program similar to Photoshop. These types of programs will allow you to manipulate the image in a number of ways such as cropping, rotating, resizing, adding text and changing both the contrast and colour balance. As you progress, and are satisfied with the results, it is a good idea to save your work at regular intervals in case you make a mistake..

Very little work needs to be done from a good scan. The only work that may need doing is cleaning up the edges, or you may wish to enhance the image and make some additional changes. As you proceed with changes, it is advisable to print the image at various stages because what you see on your monitor is rarely a true representation of what will print.

Reasons for differences include:

Different printers and inks will have different colour ranges or gamut.
Different printers will print the same image differently, as each manufacturer sets each printer to a different standard
Different manufacturers papers / media will result if different outcomes, and
Monitors have different colour configurations and will represent the image differently. So what you see on the screen is not always what you will see on the end product

Scanners will scan in RGB mode, and for inkjet printing it is best to keep working within this colour mode, as it has a greater range of colours. You should not need to work in CMYK unless you are creating images for four colour offset litho.