Customizing your Koomdee Kit

What is a Koomdee Kit anyway?

A Koomdee Kit is every file format and color variation you'll need of your character design(s), in one convenient download. After beginning a project you'll be asked to fill out a "Project Concept" form. Here you will provide information that will determine the technical creative process by which your project is created as well as the file types in which your final artwork is presented. If new to the world of illustration, the next two pages will offer a brief walk-through of everything you'll need to know to get the most out of your project.

Vector or Raster?

An important decision to make is whether you’d like your project to be vector or raster-based. With each graphic type offering different advantages, taking the time to select the proper format can go a long way. So what's the difference between vector and raster?

Basics of Vector graphics- Vector-based files use mathematical equations to store image data and are visually defined by an often distinct color gradation and more simplistic shading style. Thanks to their method of data storage, vector graphics offer the literally "huge" advantage of infinite scalability and can be printed at high resolution for any variety of large applications (such as billboards or vinyl automotive decals.) Although vector graphics are a very useful graphic type, especially in logo design, they may not always be the best choice. For applications requiring imagery with more subtle color and tone gradation (commonly referred to as "shading") we turn to the vector alternative, raster graphics.

Basics of Raster graphics- Also known as "pixel-based", raster-based graphics offer the ability to render images with greater visual versatility than vector graphics. The painterly and smooth gradient transitions possible in raster graphics is a result of their creation from contone pixels, or tiny square dots of color. Due to a printing resolution limited to their creation size, a typical 300 dpi raster image will lack the resolution necessary for large scale full poster or billboard applications. A standard dpi is still however perfect for most applications, such as magazine, flyer, or t-shirt printing.

Below is the same character design in both vectorized and rasterized versions. Notice the crisp simplicity of the vector image and the more dimensional shading of the raster image. For huge applications vector is best, for everything else raster is the most versatile.

RGB or CMYK?

The next consideration for your project is the color space to be used in the coloration process. For this your choices are RGB or CMYK.

RGB (or Red, Green, Blue) is the color profile used by electronic display devices such as the computer monitor you're now looking into, televisions, cellular phones, and so on. This color space uses an additive process (adding light to make colors lighter) to create nearly 17 million colors. However, RGB must be inverted to print which is where the print standard CMYK enters the scene. This color space stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, and is subtractive (adding pigmentation to occlude light from a reflective surface and darken colors).

In order to print, all RGB files must be converted to CMYK and this is where issues may arise. Due to CMYK's smaller palette of around 1 million colors as compared to RGB's 17 million, images can become unpredictably desaturated, darkened, and suffer hue shifts as RGB color swatches are replaced with CMYK's nearest matches. A more predictable method for images intended primarily for print is initial production in the CMYK color space rather than RGB. This insures the colors used will be contained within the 1 million color palette.

Basics of RGB images- Palette of nearly 17 million colors for brighter, more saturated images. Standard for web and electronic display. May suffer undesired hue shifts and loss in saturation and brightness when printed.

Basics of CMYK images- Palette of 1 million colors not as vivid as RGB but the standard in color printing. Will have more predictable results when sent to the printing press though not ideal for web display or through electronic devices.

Below is the same character design as displayed in both RGB and CMYK. When printed, the RGB image (left) must be converted to CMYK with a loss in saturation and brightness as well as hue shift due to CMYK's smaller color palette (right).

Customizing your Koomdee Kit

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