Laddawn.com : Cumulative color management

Overview

The number of colors in a registered print job determines not only the one-time cost of new print plates, but the cost of the job itself.

In order to provide accurate pricing, we need a means for customers and CE to capture an accurate color count. 

Ultimately, the vendor needs to know the number of colors and what the colors are (PMS, process/CMYK).

A plate's total artwork composition can be made up of multiple, separate art uploads, each of which could consist of the same colors or new colors.

• Should we provide a means for customers to indicate the art will require process printing?
• Should we tackle white block? 

Key considerations

• We still want to give customers the ability to specify what the colors are, without requiring that they do so. 
• When do we do it?
  • Part of the upload process as it is today, but make the choices 1-8 (the new cap); and incorporate color identification at that step?
  • Part of the artwork formatting process (floating menu)
  • At the end of the process (for example, turn the "Find" button into a "Next" button) 
  • All or a combination of some of the above ? 
• When prompting the user to count and specify colors they should be able to see the art. This becomes challenging with art placed on more than one side, and with compositions made up of more than one image of differing or overlapping colors.
• Although we prompt users to count colors at upload and we can add those numbers, we currently have no means of capturing that some colors are being reused. My composition could consist of two separately uploaded images, each with the same two colors, and we'd count that as 4 (and when users do not specify colors, we have no way currently, to sort that out programmatically).
• Regardless of the initial mechanism for capturing color count and color identification, the user will need to be able to make changes and corrections after the fact - during the design process and after the Find. 
• Once we figure this out, we need to figure out how to show color count/identification in technical drawings - art detail is now separated into a page per side; how do we show cumulative count/ID relative to the specific art which may just be a subset. <We discussed showing it on a legend on each page, with checkmarks or something like that to indicate which ones are being used on a particular side.>
• What are we keeping track of in "My Artwork" ???
• Color management design work below is incomplete in many ways. One thing that is definitely not addressed yet is cumulative color management for adding art that isn't uploaded by user  - stock art, text, shape, existing art from my artwork. 

Draft design (Derek in process of revising, fleshing out)

Demo sample - bottom gusset wicketed bag with some colors that are reused from image to image, side to side, and some others that are not.

Here's a rough, incomplete stab at how cumulative color count/identification might work during the upload process. But this mechanism must be paired with a means of making corrections, that doesn't involve re-uploading art. <Probably the floating menu with some modifications.>

	First art upload. Number of colors must be answered before art can be placed; zero is not an option.  Derek, Feel free to propose alternative to dropdown menu. Colors are capped at 8.
	Specify number of colors; now able to place art - specifying colors is optional.
	User has specified colors; color swatches fill in.
	Second art upload A: if user did not specify any PMS colors. (Another possibility not illustrated - user specifies N number of colors, and specifies some but not all PMS colors.) Derek: If PMS color identification is going to be optional throughout, then I think we need to also ask "how many total colors are in this artwork?" in addition to "how many additional colors are in this artwork?"; even if the user doesn't specify all or some PMS colors, we need to store the total number of colors with each piece of artwork. (Note: The color counting menu for all subsequent art uploads needs to have zero as an option because now we are counting additional colors.)
	Second art upload B - the user has specified the prior 2 PMS colors. Derek, please add to this design how the user indicates which of the existing colors already identified are part of this art. (Maybe we need an example that combines the brown or the yellow from the prior art with this blue - feel free to choose different art than what i have here to illustrate the concept.)
	The user has specified number of additional colors.  Derek, please update this to reflect any changes made to scenarios above.
Then we need to know what the floating menu looks like for cumulative color counting/identification. I think the mockups need to take us through at least one full pass through art placement on all sides (long side/short side/bottom gusset) - but needs to address 3 scenarios: user specifies all PMS colors as they go; user specifies no PMS colors as they go; user specifies only some PMS colors as they go.
Then how does color handling work in floating menus for a) stock art; b) existing art from my artwork ; c) text; d) shape?

Rejects

Here's a rough, incomplete stab at how a floating menu might work for cumulative color count/identification - it breaks down in not forcing the user to choose. However, it might be a good mechanism for "after the fact" color counting/identification? It very well may break down in other ways too though.(Selecting images v. selecting composition as a whole.) 

Coming soon? <Probably not>

Mockup of how it might look at the end of the design process. (Change "Find" into a "Next" to force the answer.)

And/or a new color management toolbar button ...

... that brings up a screen giving an overview of all the printed sides and the cumulative count/identification; enables the user to make corrections. (To supplement the upload process, as an alternative to the floating menu for making corrections after the fact.)