CMYK colour space

[Les Simmons]

I have decided to out source the printing of my annual friends & family calendar to a proper printer on grounds of cost & speed but they need the files in PDF format & CMYK colour space.

Do I need to edit using CMYK or do I just export them as CMYK & will they automatically adjust accordinly.

I usually use an old version of LR & PSE niether of which support CMYK & I am still getting to grips with Affinity. Could I just edit them elsewhere then import to Affinity & re export as CMYK. I'm probably being really naive but I usually just do a "Blue Peter" job, punching & binding etc but expensive & slow & this year Is a special year so I want something a bit more pro.

[Alfred]

Welcome back to the Serif Affinity Forums, Les.

10 minutes ago, Les Simmons said:

Do I need to edit using CMYK or do I just export them as CMYK & will they automatically adjust accordinly.

The RGB colour space has a much larger gamut (range of colours) than the CMYK colour space, so working in CMYK is the best way to avoid nasty surprises. In particular, brighter shades of orange and green are likely to be noticeably muted on conversion from RGB to CMYK.

[NotMyFault]

28 minutes ago, Les Simmons said:

Do I need to edit using CMYK

Don’t try to use adjustments in CMYK if you don’t know what you do exactly.

As CMYK has a K channel, and almost all adjustments working differently in CMYK than RGB, this can lead to unexpected and surprising results (when using master / all 4 channels).

It is a compromise - edit Photos in RGB, and as a last step export to CMYK. if the result in CMYK is not satisfying, you can try to correct in CMYK mode (starting on an exported bitmap file - don’t covert an Affinity document already containing adjustment layers).

[WeronikaSalach]

Hello  Does Affinity have a “quick preview” shortcut? To switch the preview from RGB to CMYK and vice versa? In Photoshop this shortcut is Apple +Y. So when working in RGB you can use this shortcut and quickly preview how it would look in CMYK. Does Affinity have such an option?

Thanks! Wera

[thomaso]

Alternatively to the two recommendations above: I prefer to keep the images in RGB and place them in RGB in a CMYK print layout.

Another workflow: Edit + keep the images in RGB, create the layout in RGB, too, and export the PDF as CMYK. For visual preview / control of the images in CMYK look add a Softproof adjustment layer, either when editing the images or in the layout document on a master page that gets moved as top layer on all pages with one task.

[NotMyFault]

18 hours ago, WeronikaSalach said:

Hello  Does Affinity have a “quick preview” shortcut? To switch the preview from RGB to CMYK and vice versa? In Photoshop this shortcut is Apple +Y. So when working in RGB you can use this shortcut and quickly preview how it would look in CMYK. Does Affinity have such an option?

Thanks! Wera

You can use a softproof adjustment and deactivate it if not needed.

[Les Simmons]

On 7/24/2023 at 8:22 PM, Alfred said:

Welcome back to the Serif Affinity Forums, Les.

The RGB colour space has a much larger gamut (range of colours) than the CMYK colour space, so working in CMYK is the best way to avoid nasty surprises. In particular, brighter shades of orange and green are likely to be noticeably muted on conversion from RGB to CMYK.

Thanks for trhat Alfred

[Les Simmons]

Thanks to everybody. Will have a look when I can get time & give your ideas a go. "I may be back"

[WeronikaSalach]

On 7/25/2023 at 5:02 PM, NotMyFault said:

You can use a softproof adjustment and deactivate it if not needed.

Thanks! I just had a look at it in my Designer interface. Could you maybe advise me on the “Intent” part of this soft proof adjustment? There’s options like: perceptual or relative colorimetric. I was wondering which of those settings would be the best if my illustration were to be printed out in a picture book.

[Chris26]

1 hour ago, WeronikaSalach said:

Thanks! I just had a look at it in my Designer interface. Could you maybe advise me on the “Intent” part of this soft proof adjustment? There’s options like: perceptual or relative colorimetric. I was wondering which of those settings would be the best if my illustration were to be printed out in a picture book.

Scroll about half way down to get straight to the point.  Personally I choose according to image sometimes.  But that is a photographic perspective.  It may be different for Print production for magazines and books.

https://colorbase.com/blog-rendering-intents-a-deep-dive/#:~:text=In color management%2C we use,how to deal with colors.

[WeronikaSalach]

19 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Scroll about half way down to get straight to the point.  Personally I choose according to image sometimes.  But that is a photographic perspective.  It may be different for Print production for magazines and books.

https://colorbase.com/blog-rendering-intents-a-deep-dive/#:~:text=In color management%2C we use,how to deal with colors.

Brilliant, thanks so much, I’ll get to reading it 🤩