Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

AP, best way to convert from rgb to cmyk?


Recommended Posts

I'm following this topic, because I would like to know too. In Designer at least, that can be done in the Color tab after File or Move Tool > Document Setup, but it doesn't look like Photo has that.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, what is the best way to convert rgb images to cmyk for print with Affinity Photo? Thanks

 

 

The common and clever practice is to stay

in RGB or ProRGB to perform any, all post-

production works and only convert the final

file to CMYK for the printer.

 

It is a win-win situation where both the proces-

sing power & time and files sizes are kept within

more reasonable 3 channels rather than 4.

 

If starting with a RAW file, one will not have to

bother with that since RAWs have no colour

space (they are not images but recorded data). 

 

If a files needs to go through a pixel editor, it can

be converted at the end of the process.

 

One is well advised to…

  • stay in the RAW converter as long as possible
  • stay in RGB colour space until the end.

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found it. Unless Kodiak's suggestion works for you, go into Document > Color Format > CMYK.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found it. Unless Kodiak's suggestion works for you, go into Document > Color Format > CMYK.

 

 

Yep, this is simple but with accurate results? In preferences what is the best setting to convert in cmyk profiled image? Relative colourimetric? Black point compensation? You need to add soft proof adjustments? So many way or simple way? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless…

 

 

It is so recommendable to "only publish" in CMYK as the

industry practice is to layout in RGB. The conversion may

be done when the final doc will be exported to pdf.

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, this is simple but with accurate results? In preferences what is the best setting to convert in cmyk profiled image? Relative colourimetric? Black point compensation? You need to add soft proof adjustments? So many way or simple way? :)

 

Aside from doing that or doing what Kodiak said, I don't believe there is another way, but Kodiak does make a good point. I was taught in college to do the opposite, but from what I've experimented with Adobe software, I lost the quality I needed. In Illustrator, I converted RGB to CMYK to test the color changes. Then when I tried converting it back to RGB, the colors did not update. This doesn't seem to be the same with Affinity, but I would say it's best to not experiment too much for incase there is some color loss. As long as you export with the color mode you need, you should still have that right quality you're looking for.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there is now an article about color spaces/ conversion 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/33820-color-profiles-management-eg-srgb-adobergb/?p=165094

 

and also about my experience using soft proof, not using cmyk though 

 

 

@bleduc

what you describe is basically clipping all RGB values to your cmyk gamut and thus preventing colors going weird after converting into cmyk again.

 

@Flaz

"Relative colourimetric"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_management#Rendering_intent

see here  :)

 

If you work in AdobeRGB and then convert into CYMK you can get out of gamut colors (which are not in the gamut of your monitor) and thus you do not know how the print will look exactly.

This is the disadvantage as well as the biggest advantage at the same time.

You just need to know if you want to make use of the big color space like AdobeRGB to get "more" colors in the cmyk conversion or if you want to play save and first convert "down" to a profile that is as big as your monitor profile.

 

Hope this clears things up a bit

 

Soft proof is especially useful if your printer profile is significantly smaller than the color space you are working on/ the color space of your monitor.

This was e.g. the case in the soft proof use I linked to above.

 

In some cases it might be best to edit in cmyk because you can explicitly edit the colors/ cmyk values.

After a conversion from RGB you will probably not get the right black in cmyk e.g. and thus you need to edit/tweak the black as desired (warm/ cold/ rich whatever black).

 

cheers 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@bleduc

what you describe is basically clipping all RGB values to your cmyk gamut and thus preventing colors going weird after converting into cmyk again.

 

I'm saying to work in RGB from the start, not clip it after CMYK is already in use.

 

But anyway, not relevant to this particular case, when I do my own artwork, I actually work in RGB and then export as sRGB. I understand that is not the preferred way, but it always works better for me. CMYK has actually never been useful to me.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CMYK has actually never been useful to me.

 

CMYK is mainly used when sending to a 4 colour rotary-press printer.

 

For photo printing, RGB is the right colour space.

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks all. I'd like to have a real and accurate print preview for cmyk images.. perhaps also with choice of different supports like papers or more   :D

 

I haven't printed from an Affinity product yet. Is the print preview not accurate to the actual printout?

 

CMYK is mainly used when sending to a 4 colour rotary-press printer.

 

For photo printing, RGB is the right colour space.

 

Thank you for clarifying. It was very forced in college, but it was never actually explained to me why. I don't think our instructor understood that it was not always meant to be used.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for clarifying. It was very forced in college, but it was never actually explained to me why.

I don't think our instructor understood that it was not always meant to be used.

 

 

I'm impressed by your opened attitude!

 

I'm also impressed by instructors omitting to

mention the great importance and limitations

of CMYK.

 

As most my work (65%) is directed towards

publishing/printing, the ins and outs of CMYK

are an integer part of my workflow.

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm impressed by your opened attitude!

 

I'm also impressed by instructors omitting to

mention the great importance and limitations

of CMYK.

 

As most my work (65%) is directed towards

publishing/printing, the ins and outs of CMYK

are an integer part of my workflow.

 

I'm glad you envy my attitude. It might be a little off topic, but in many situations (non graphic related), I am a solo traveler. I feel there is a lot of awareness that is not met, so I like to always be open to any possible blindness. Not in a bad sense, but to help people be aware of things more.

 

I'm glad to have your experience go towards my advantage. I do plan to do a lot of printing in the far future, and now I know that CMYK is best for 4 colour rotary-press printers whereas RGB is for more basic printing tasks. I do not know about rotary-press, so I think I should be fine using RGB for my printer.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  1. I do not know about rotary-press, so I think I should be fine using RGB for my printer.
  2. I think I should be fine using RGB for my printer.

 

  1. A 4 rotating cylinder machine that prints

    4 colours successively and very quickly!

     

  2. Maybe. In my office, I do have a colour jet

    printer for CMYK. But I think the printer dri-

    ver converts the RGB files on the fly prior 

    to printing.

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Mine? Really?

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never mind. At first, your post was just my quote and nothing after that, but your message is showing now. That was weird. I noticed that happened with another user in another topic.

 

So what is really the major difference between the two styles of printing? What would be the reason for people to turn to 4-color jet printers? Would it be specifically for speed like you indicated?

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So what is really the major difference between the two styles of printing? 

 

The CMYK style is for printing greater quantities of copies

 in the shortest time… like books, magazines, flyers etc.

 

What would be the reason for people to turn to 4-color jet printers? Would it be specifically for speed like you indicated?

 

Jet printers do a better job at printing when in 4 colour

separation. Don't forget that this implies a substrative

light viewing as RGB is additive.

 

As said, inkjet printer drivers can handle both so no real 

need to conversion.

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

As said, inkjet printer drivers can handle both so no real 

need to conversion.

 

 

CORRECTION!

 

I must correct this statement as I was at a colleague 

to fine tune the colours for his new printer and his new

machine does not handle well being fed any RGB files.

 

All printer drivers are not created equal!

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Putting RGB file into CMYK project or converting RGB project with inserted RGB file to CMYK may lead to sufficient color change.

If you need to pick proper color from RGB image, import it to RGB project and when you picked colors, convert project to CMYK. Colors that you picked will remain basically same.

So I agree, that it's better to work in RGB until export.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
  • Staff

@malcolmstone

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

The participants in this thread may have a different workflow to you, so it is not appropriate to say they don't know what they are talking about.

CMYK end to end is not the only way to work, and often not appropriate or possible.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.