RGB to CMYK during export but with wrong colors in prints

[mchotti]

Hello, I often prepare a file for printing in RGB mode and at the end I choose the export via CMYK (ikl. ICC profile) as PDF file. The printout from the printshop is often much too light and the colors are washed out.

Does the file have to be created in CMYK from the beginning? But then the colours between the screen and the print do not match.

[Lee D]

It's worth checking with your printer/printshop as they usually have a spec that you document has to match. Sometimes they may even have a custom ICC profile for you to install inside your OS first so that ours and other apps can use it. If CMYK is required it makes things easier to create your document in CMYK and go from there. If may be worth looking at using Spot colours in your document, see this video for some more information.

You can find all of our online Designer videos here.

 

[walt.farrell]

39 minutes ago, mchotti said:

Hello, I often prepare a file for printing in RGB mode and at the end I choose the export via CMYK (ikl. ICC profile) as PDF file. The printout from the printshop is often much too light and the colors are washed out.

Does the file have to be created in CMYK from the beginning? But then the colours between the screen and the print do not match.

RGB and CMYK have different color gamuts, which means that when you convert from one to the other there may be colors that don't have an exact equivalent:

Note, for example, that ProPhoto RGB and Adobe RGB are much larger than SWOP CMYK. sRGB and SWOP CMYK are closer in size, but not identical, so there will still be differences.

If you know what CMYK profile you're going to use, you might be able to add a Soft-Proofing Adjustment layer on top of your layer stack to see how your RGB image will look in CMYK, and you can then do some color tweaking using additional adjustments on top to make it look better. You would turn off the adjustment layer before printing or exporting.

If you don't like the look of your RGB image when tweaked for CMYK, you could hide both the soft-proofing adjustment and the other added adjustments before printing, and just use the other added adjustments for exporting.

 

[Bryce]

You should make sure that your document is CMYK/8 and US WebCoated (SWOP) V2 when you create it.

Then when you export it choose PDF/X-4

There are bugs in the export of the other ones that cause elements that are supposed to be CMYK (drop shadows, transparencies, etc) suddenly have mixed elements with both.

This is what I use and recommend to those who bring files to our printshop from Designer.

[walt.farrell]

That sounds like a good recommendation, Bryce.

Unfortunately, it sounds like @mchotti wants to have a document that he can choose to print locally on an RGB-based printer, or send out for CMYK work, which gets tricky