Hi Rob! Congrats for the great tutorial. I have a little tip for the dull colors: if you convert the RGB profile from sRGB IEC61966-2.1 to Adobe RGB then it will brighten the image and gives more saturation. After that you can convert to CMYK and then the image will remain more contrasting and saturated. I always do this method and CMYK photos will have more 'life' in the final result.
That's all great. However, I save my psd in CMYK, then export the image to have a CMYK image. But when open that exported image in Photoshop, in order to check the color profile, it's RGB again. What am I doing wrong? :(
If I provide my artwork in RGB including my non-image artwork, when the printer converts the RGB files to CMYK using their color-calibrated profiles for their press, they will have the full spectrum of RGB gamut to use to approximate color reproduction. This is UNDOUBTEDLY going to produce OPTIMIZED printed colors because the printer profiles are designed to work specifically with their presses. If I convert my artwork to CMYK and work in the CMYK colorspace, It's still an RGB color space on the screen. It is now converting the CMYK back to RGB to display it. But there's no gamut loss in that direction. However, when I send CMYK Artwork to the printer and my images use a different color profile than the printer uses, the printer has to convert my version of CMYK with it's limited gamut to their version of CMYK with a potentially different gamut thereby ensuring that more color loss will happen. I'm providing smaller gamut CMKY documents that then get converted to optimized CMYK which has the potential to limit even more gamut. It will NEVER produce improved gamut. or color reproduction. The only time that it is reasonable to convert your ProRGB or SRGB or RGB images to CMYK is if you have the predefined optimized press profiles provided by the printer. This should be done as the final production step thereby optimizing your gamut with only one compatible color conversion. However, if I produce my artwork in the same color space, sRGB for example, then provide the much higher gamut file to the printer, THEY WILL OPTIMIZE THE sRGB colors to output the best quality color reproduction based on their press profiles. It may not look like the screen, but it will produce better color output with higher gamut. To prove this is true, simply take a sheet of photos that you compile from your iPhone in ProRGB colorspace and submit them directly to the printer to reproduce the colors. They will take the high gamut files and apply the corrections to convert to CMYK based on their presses. next, take the same file and convert it to Generic CMYK Color Space and send it to the printer as well. The printer will then convert it to their color profiles, output the plates and generate the prints. The RGB files will produce better quality color reproduction because the conversion happens once using the highest available gamut. The CMYK files will provide lower gamut sources and still have some color loss when converting to press optimized CMYK. It's double-lossy color repoduction. Printers that like CMYK artwork like it not because it produces better quality prints but rather because then they aren't responsible when your prints suck. They can blame your color conversions. You provided us with the color separations, we just used what you gave us. And this doesn't even account for the problems you face if the printer used is a 5-8 color printer. Converting from limited gamut CMYK to 8 colors provides NO BENEFIT IN GAMUT when converting up. However, RGB - > 8 color process will still not produce the full RGB Gamut, but it will produce a shit-ton more colors than CMYK Generic Profile to 8-color printer optimized profiles.
Thank you so much for this wonderful video. as self taught artist, printing my artwork is pain. but thank you for your video, I will try this CMYK format. :)
The discussion of a "calibrated screen" around 7:00 is hilarious. A "calibrated screen" is not simply a product you buy. It is an action that any graphic professional should perform with a colorimeter. You can calibrate a MacBook and a 300 pound laptop display as well.
Hi Rob, great tutorial video! I got a question though, shall I edit the photo in RGB then convert to CMYK? Or convert to CMYK and then edit? Thanks again!
Thank you I needed the convert as I'm doing a an ad for a magazine one of the option was CMYK and the other a PDF, hedging my bets as its for a friend and I wanted to make sure the had a usable image.
Thank you for that great tutorial 🙏 I was wondering what do you think about the idea of adding color correction filters to compensate the color changes after converting our image to CMYK? Is that a proper workflow or should I just leave it as it is without trying to match the colors back?
when my design firstly design in CMYK mode but when i saved it lastly in jpg mode colours are changes something like washed out and not good why is that happening any solutions for that?
I have a question. I don't understand why we don't just print a CMYK sample and then visually adjust the colors and lighting of the monitor after it? And you have a match...
Do you know of any android apps that will convert RGB into CMYK? From my research only Procreate has that option but it's Apple only. Im at my witts end 🙂 Photoshop app doesn't have it either. Unless Im missing something.... thank you so much for your time and for so clearly explaining the process (albeit on a PC which I don't have 😩) thank you! 🙏🙂
Is there any difference between preferring to use the "Image > Adjustments > CMYK color" option instead using the "Edit > Convert to Profile" option? I mean..... will the image get a better colorization/will I be doing a more professional job when I use the "Color to Profile" option instead the "Adjustments" option? Thanks!
Hey just found your channel very informative i started selling stickers and would love the colours to pop more what could i do to make them better would material make a bigger difference
That's 4 colour process. Could you go into special additional inks (spot colours). Sometimes you can break the rules if the colour is isolated to perhaps a logo or text. Are there tricks you can do with additional inks to spice up your existing gamut?
You can boost saturation with good results, but one must realize that at a certain point, those extra saturated colors may get cut right back to keep within specific ink limits. It really depends on what inks you’re printing with and the media you’re printing on. For example, a CMYK profile may specify no more than 300% total ink coverage. That means none of the 4 inks are allowed to add up to more than 300% in total coverage at any one area. So, in theory, one could have 100% Yellow, 100% Magenta, and 100% Cyan (muddy brown), but no extra ink (from black). Why is that an issue? Because, using more ink will not produce better results, is wasteful, and will take longer to dry if cold-set. For newspaper jobs on newsprint 30# stock, ink limits are usually 240%-260%. So, you have less ink to work with, mainly because the paper is cheap, thin with bleed-through, and must dry quickly. Graphics artists and prepress for newspapers can’t saturate too much without Photoshop cutting back the ink during CMYK conversion due to lower ink limits. Hope that gives you an idea of what happens and why.
I have a bit of a very specific issue here besides CMYK conversion. And that is fonts. I have some work lines up that I ordered a small run of, but I found the font is looking very fuzzy. It is also rather small which I guess does not help here. I totally get why that is my fault because I guess I had it either printed on the wrong type of stock OR with the wrong type of printing process. The font is white on black background. The font itself is a serif one (Bodoni). The base material (Orafol 3164) is white. I think the color layering is too thick and it runs into the white space underneath. How can I fix that? Do I need 5 color print (CMYK plus White) or is there anything I can do otherwise? Sure, I could make the font bold but that will not affect the thin portions of the font, so that option is out. Any pointers would be appreciated.
Hello mate, i appreciate how you explain this tutorial. Actually i work in a pre press industry and still confuse how to convert cmyk to pantone in photoshop via channels jst for specific color cmyk. Can you help please. Thanks
Thank you for this video! Can a printer ADD an additional color or two with the CMYK to increase the output gamut? I know that's an extra cost for additional plating, ink and so on. If that's possible, are there "typical" colors recommended to boost the output, or does that depend solely on colors you are trying to achieve? I'm pretty new to this. I'm in the process of creating a book. I'm a textile designer and work with very vibrant colors, in general, and is why I'm researching this.
Thanks for this! For the best printing quality, I should start my editing with a CMYK illustrator file or a RGB illustrator file then convert it to CMYK? If I started with RGB then convert it to CMYK for print, will there be any cons? Thanks.
Thank you for the tips Rob! I have a question and wondering if you know the solution to this: What's the best way to convert an RGB image to CMYK to be put in (and used for print) in Adobe Illustrator? I tried converting the image to CMYK first in Photoshop, and then embedded/linking the image in Illustrator file (CMYK mode) and the colours look horrible - the final print colours were dull too? :( Is there a specific order I can follow to get the colours to look right? Thank you in advance!
I am new to computers, graphics and specially photoshop, see i managed to create my artwork on word obviously as RGB and i need it to print as vibrant as it looks, I'm failing miserably at converting and adjusting the tones . so i understood the converting and the why, now how do i modify the artwork colors to print as vibrant as if it were RGB, can the colors be changed under CMYK so that it prints like RGB? should i just get a professional?
Depends on your printer, different printers are different colors result. In this case, you must calibrate your monitor to the same color on your printer. Sometimes the manufacturer creates a specific color profile included in CD(Compact Disk) or Uploads it on their website for a specific printer. If you not enough time and tired yep just get a professional. Why printer manufacturers can't create the same color for all printers? It's hard It's like, humans are born with different forms, shapes, and sizes even though their parent is the same person.
Hey quick question bud, I have an original artwork which Ive colour corrected etc in RGB, Im sending it to be printinted on a canvas, would the same methodology apply? Im sure its a yes, but just to be sure, thanks.
I work in accessibility. I was wondering if this affects the color contrast ratio. If two colors have a certain contrast in rgb will it change once they are converted to cmyk?
Do you have any idea how to change the colour profile using photoshop for the IPad?! I’ve searched everywhere to find out how to do it and I can’t find any info 😩
Ooo, this is a good question. I’ve just had a look in Photoshop on the iPad and done abit of googling as well. At the moment (oddly) it looks like you can only work in RGB. Fingers crossed they make it a feature soon to change your colour profile in Photoshop for iPad 😊
Wouldn’t you just be better off keeping all artwork as RGB, then on PDF export create the CMYK there. That way your original file is flexible for unlimited output options and it’s not locked into a particular printers specific CMYK output
I've also heard that you should save a copy of the original RGB because when you convert an image from RGB to CMYK in Photoshop, un-doing that change will not put the image back to your original RGB but something close. I've heard this from a few people.
