Convert RGB to CYMK for printing press

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Last year I created a wall calendar as a church fundraiser but wasn't happy with the colors. It was printed by a printing company. This year when I went to look at the proof calendar, once again the colors were off a little. Then the guy said he wondered what color profile I used, and after checking, he saw that the files are RGB. He printed them as CYMK.

So my question is this...when we view files on computer screens, RGB is the preferred way. But what happens when we edit our files as RGB then need to convert them? Is there some type of preferred way to do this? When looking online, some sites recommend converting files to CYMK before editing when those files will be printed by printing presses. But what do you do if you want to display them online, too, when RGB is the preferred way for online viewing? :confused:

Any ideas or suggestions on how and when to convert, please?
 
To convert an RGB file to a target CMYK space, open the image file in Photoshop, then go to Edit > Convert to Profile. Once there, select your target profile (a copy of which should be in the [Your Computer] > Library > ColorSync > Profiles folder, or else it will not appear in the pulldown menu).
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Last year I created a wall calendar as a church fundraiser but wasn't happy with the colors. It was printed by a printing company. This year when I went to look at the proof calendar, once again the colors were off a little. Then the guy said he wondered what color profile I used, and after checking, he saw that the files are RGB. He printed them as CYMK.

So my question is this...when we view files on computer screens, RGB is the preferred way. But what happens when we edit our files as RGB then need to convert them? Is there some type of preferred way to do this? When looking online, some sites recommend converting files to CYMK before editing when those files will be printed by printing presses. But what do you do if you want to display them online, too, when RGB is the preferred way for online viewing? :confused:

Any ideas or suggestions on how and when to convert, please?
With digital images, color is always a function of the output device (monitor, printer, what have you) so it's not uncommon to need to adjust the color space so it's appropriate to the output medium.

The simple thing to do is open your file in Photoshop, go to the Edit menu and drop down to "Convert to Profile" (do NOT use "Assign Profile") and choose "Working CMYK" as your destination color-space. You might want to save the file with "CMYK" appended to the file name for identification purposes.
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CMYK.jpg
 

Chucktin

Senior Member
The press company that is involved should be telling you what flavor of CMYK to use. Some will even give you their customized profile.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
To convert an RGB file to a target CMYK space, open the image file in Photoshop, then go to Edit > Convert to Profile. Once there, select your target profile (a copy of which should be in the [Your Computer] > Library > ColorSync > Profiles folder, or else it will not appear in the pulldown menu).

With digital images, color is always a function of the output device (monitor, printer, what have you) so it's not uncommon to need to adjust the color space so it's appropriate to the output medium.

The simple thing to do is open your file in Photoshop, go to the Edit menu and drop down to "Convert to Profile" (do NOT use "Assign Profile") and choose "Working CMYK" as your destination color-space. You might want to save the file with "CMYK" appended to the file name for identification purposes.
.....
View attachment 274205

I *think* what both of you wrote is the same idea. When reading online about converting to CMYK, several of the articles said not to convert the images after editing. Instead, they suggest creating the image from the beginning by converting the working space to CMYK. But it does leave me wondering how different an image would look if it's converted before editing vs afterwards. Didn't see any comparisons. Thank you both for the info.

The press company that is involved should be telling you what flavor of CMYK to use. Some will even give you their customized profile.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

They didn't say anything about it last year or this year, and the guy didn't even check the color profile I used until I questioned the color. This is good to know though. Wouldn't have known that companies might have their own customized profiles. Thanks, Chucktin.

And for anyone--when sending out images to be printed by photo labs, is it better to convert those images to CMYK, or are the majority of photo labs set up to print as RGB? Some labs offer books (for weddings, etc) so it makes me wonder. Or is it best to just ask every time before gettings things printed? I had no idea not all places print with RGB.
 

Chucktin

Senior Member
I *think* what both of you wrote is the same idea. When reading online about converting to CMYK, several of the articles said not to convert the images after editing. Instead, they suggest creating the image from the beginning by converting the working space to CMYK. But it does leave me wondering how different an image would look if it's converted before editing vs afterwards. Didn't see any comparisons. Thank you both for the info.



They didn't say anything about it last year or this year, and the guy didn't even check the color profile I used until I questioned the color. This is good to know though. Wouldn't have known that companies might have their own customized profiles. Thanks, Chucktin.

And for anyone--when sending out images to be printed by photo labs, is it better to convert those images to CMYK, or are the majority of photo labs set up to print as RGB? Some labs offer books (for weddings, etc) so it makes me wonder. Or is it best to just ask every time before gettings things printed? I had no idea not all places print with RGB.
To be safe, if you're getting "photo" prints, convert to sRGB.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 
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