Process separation is the procedure in which an image is divided into the four colors that will be used to print the final image. Each of the four separations will be used to make a plate for the printing press. For example, in printing a solid blue box, two of the separations would be blank because there is no yellow or black ink used to produce blue. The cyan separation would have a solid box and the magenta separation would have a box screened at 50 percent. When used on the press, these plates would deliver the correct amounts on ink — in the correct areas — to produce a blue box on the paper.

In pixel-based software applications such as Photoshop, the color black is generally divided among all four separations. The result is a much richer black when printed. However, if your document has solid black lines or small black text — like most cartoons — you do not want the black divided among the four inks. If a cartoon were printed this way, each word printed in black would appear on each of the four separations. If even one of these separations doesn't line up exactly with the others, the image will appear blurry.

Therefore, you want the color black to be reproduced on the black plate only. To achieve this, you need to create a special color setting in your Photoshop preferences. The following instructions are written specifically for Photoshop 7. Earlier versions will allow you to create a special color profile, but the necessary commands will be found under different menu options.

• Go to Photoshop in the menu bar and pull down to Color Settings.

• Under Working Spaces, click on the toggle bar next to CMYK.

• Select Custom CMYK.

• Make sure GCR is selected.

• Set Black Generation to Maximum.

• Black Limit should be 100% 7. Total Ink Limit should be 400%.

• Name the setting “Cartoon CMYK” and OK the dialogue box.

• Go back to the CMYK toggle bar, click and select Save CMYK, and save this custom profile somewhere safe on your hard drive.

Keep your Photoshop color settings on their original profile whenever you're not processing cartoons. This is not a good profile for processing photographs or other illustrations. Before you begin color work on a cartoon, go back to Custom CMYK in Photoshop's Color Settings and click on Load CMYK. When the next dialogue box appears, path to the place you saved the Cartoon CMYK profile and select it.