RGB/CMYK

[boxes100]

I use Xara in my graphic design business. I take a lot of digital photographs which load into Photoshop as RGB colourspace. If I convert them to CMYK, save them, then import into Xara, they look really weird. Conversely, if I create a layout in CMYK in Xara, export it as a TIFF file and open that file in Photoshop, it loads as RGB colourspace. What am I doing wrong? A lot of the publishers that I send work to only use Photoshop and the colours that I send them end up looking nothing like I intended. This is especially frustrating when dealing with corporate colours which need to be spot on. Can somebody help me please?

[boxes100]

I use Xara in my graphic design business. I take a lot of digital photographs which load into Photoshop as RGB colourspace. If I convert them to CMYK, save them, then import into Xara, they look really weird. Conversely, if I create a layout in CMYK in Xara, export it as a TIFF file and open that file in Photoshop, it loads as RGB colourspace. What am I doing wrong? A lot of the publishers that I send work to only use Photoshop and the colours that I send them end up looking nothing like I intended. This is especially frustrating when dealing with corporate colours which need to be spot on. Can somebody help me please?

[Turan]

When is CMYK not CMYK???

I've found an (almost) similar problem.

When I print out my xara work on an Epson photo printer (CMYK) it looks just like the screen image. But when I take it to the printer for mass printing the colours are off.

I don't have AI - who needs it http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif (no offense Gary) - but when I export xara to tiff and import it into photoshop and convert RGB to CYMK it does not look much different!

As with John - can anyone explain? If anything, I'd expect a little old home printer from epson to get it wrong but the mega bucks print press to get it right - but it seem the other way around.

Turan http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

[gwpriester]

Turan

I take no offence :-) I review software for a graphics publication and so I get all the Adobe software for free. As long as I have it I might as well use it when it has a feature I need, eh ;-)

Certain colors will alter greatly when you convert to CMYK in Photoshop. Greens and blue-violets seem to suffer the most as a result of being confined to a lesser color space.

But for the most part, I have been very pleased with how little most of my images change.

If you use the Window > Show Printer Colors option, you can get a fairly good idea of what is going to happen in Photoshop to your colors. Or at least what colors are not going to retain their intensity.

But I prefer to work in RGB, export in RGB (with Show Printer Colors disabled) then do the CMYK converting in Photoshop.

Also, I use my DELL color profile in Photoshop as well as with my HP and Epson printers which gives a more consistant output.

Gary

Gary Priester

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