HELP-URGENT! CMYK colour problems

[WuffRuff]

Hi,

I have a problem with CMYK photos.
After I converted my photos to CMYK, they look about the same and decent in photoshop but when I opened them in Windows Picture Viewer, they look absolutely horrid!
Photos were saved as .jpeg. The same photos looked normal when previously saved in RGB.

So now I would like to know which photo will it look like and why does my nice-looking photos look horrible just cos I converted to CMYK. Is this normal or my photoshop is screwed? The photos look very very dark... like half black when opened in Windows Picture Viewer, but with normal colour and details in photoshop.

How can I get my photo in photoshop to look as how it would when sent for CMYK printing? I will be sending it to a commercial printer and told that I would need to save artwork in CMYK.

[WuffRuff]

I just did a test...
Uploaded the photo to Flickr and it looks even weirder!
Colours are totally off and totally different from both the photoshop and Windows Photo Viewer.
Now I'm totally confused! So how will my photos look like when printed?
Don't want to get a shock to see hundreds of copies of printed material with ugly photos.

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

why do you want to convert to CMYK to put online when most if not all monitors are RGB?

why photoshop can display it properly is its still viewing it as RGB as there is a convertor to convert back, only some colors may look abit weird.

i'd rather send the picture as RGB, unless color accuracy is needed, for printing to the printer.

[realgar]

convert to cmyk only if you're sending to en external printer (printing shop/company) that use offset printing, or require CMYK colours.

CMYK colours have a smaller colour gamut (i.e. colour range) as compared to RGB.

for printing: else for digital printers (any canon/epson/hp/brother/lexmark), or printing at photo shops (fuji/kodak/konica), keep it in RGB cos the printers are designed to interpret the colours from RGB. CMYK will throw them off.

for viewing on screen: always use RGB. screens are designed in RGB.

hope this helps.

[catchlights]

Do not convert to CMYK unless you are sending the flies for offset printing.

and once you convert to CMYK, you will lose image quality if you convert it back to RGB.

normal digitlab don't support CMYK, only RGB

web use also don't support CMYK, only RGB.

[hazmee]

Elooo friend. Are you printing a brochure or what? If you are then your artwork, PSD, PDF, AI, EPS, TIFF etc.. must be flattened and in CMYK mode la. Those commercial (offset printers) very 'ngiao' one. Everything must follow rules one. Cannot anyhow hantam send RGB then expect them to convert for you.

Like what the rest have already mentioned, do your work in RGB mode first. When you are done, flatten your file then convert to CMYK for the printer. Keep the working file in RGB and send the final artwork in CMYK. Hope that helps.

[WuffRuff]

Originally Posted by Del_CtrlnoAlt why do you want to convert to CMYK to put online when most if not all monitors are RGB?

I did not want to convert to CMYK to put online... putting it online was just a test.
As stated in my last line of my first post and I will reiterate multiple times here, "I will be sending it to a commercial printer and told that I would need to save artwork in CMYK.

Originally Posted by realgar convert to cmyk only if you're sending to en external printer (printing shop/company) that use offset printing, or require CMYK colours.

Yes, that is what I intended to do.

Originally Posted by catchlights Do not convert to CMYK unless you are sending the flies for offset printing. and once you convert to CMYK, you will lose image quality if you convert it back to RGB. normal digitlab don't support CMYK, only RGB web use also don't support CMYK, only RGB.

Well, I intended to use this offset printer but then I have no time now (they need 4-5 working days) and I also found out that normal digital lab don't support CMYK so I have changed it all back to CMYK.

When I enlarged the photos, I did notice that they lost image quality.
But I don't suppose it makes much difference since I am printing it very small (namecards).

Btw, now I have converted it back from CMYK to RGB.
If I were to convert it back from RGB to CMYK, will I lose even more image quality, or will it revert back to previous better image quality. Just wondering.

Originally Posted by hazmee Elooo friend. Are you printing a brochure or what? If you are then your artwork, PSD, PDF, AI, EPS, TIFF etc.. must be flattened and in CMYK mode la. Those commercial (offset printers) very 'ngiao' one. Everything must follow rules one. Cannot anyhow hantam send RGB then expect them to convert for you. Like what the rest have already mentioned, do your work in RGB mode first. When you are done, flatten your file then convert to CMYK for the printer. Keep the working file in RGB and send the final artwork in CMYK. Hope that helps.

Yes, that is why I used CMYK.
If I do my work in RGB, then convert to CMYK... wouldn't all the colours be off?
Shouldn't I do my work in CMYK if I am planning to have the final file in CMYK?


Anyway, thanks to all for taking the time to reply.
Another qn of curiosity, besides the commercial offset printers, when or who else uses CMYK?

[hazmee]

Originally Posted by WuffRuff Yes, that is why I used CMYK. If I do my work in RGB, then convert to CMYK... wouldn't all the colours be off? Shouldn't I do my work in CMYK if I am planning to have the final file in CMYK? Anyway, thanks to all for taking the time to reply. Another qn of curiosity, besides the commercial offset printers, when or who else uses CMYK?

Hi again,

Working in CMYK will give you lots of problems and limitations if you are working with adjustment layers. Why work in RGB then convert CMYK? Simple. When you are working on an artwork, you definitely want the best quality to work with right. RGB has wider colour gamut and its much easier to work with in Photoshop. Yes you do lose colours when converting to CMYK but that is expected because of printing limitations.

Alternatively, you can do a simple soft proof in Photoshop to check for colours that are off the gamut limit.

You only need to send your final artwork in CMYK for offset printing.

Hope that clears the air.

[realgar]

oops pardon me i missed the 'sending for offset' part. anw do you have a source file in RGB? like any file you save as .psd before you converted to CMYK. can work from there if have.

if don't have then like you mentioned- convert back to RGB and work from there. if got photo then copy it in again (frm the original RGB file of that particular photo/image, im assuming your namecard is a composite of different layers/images) and resize so that you can get back the original colours/resolution.