[Naeem]

Hi guys,

I've been working on a big job lately, and am responsible for concepting, finishing the painting, and making it print-ready. However, I'm not aware of anything to do with color-calibration, and what to do when I'm finished with the painting. I can't show the paintings, but I'm painting them in RGB mode. I've heard that it's a good idea to convert the image to CMYK if you want to print.

However, when I convert it to CMYK, the colors are dull, and some options in photoshop are no longer available. Does this mean that I should just paint straight in CMYK mode from beginning to end? Because the prints that have been printed so far have definitely come out too dark on paper. Perhaps it's the quality of the printer? I'm using those big printers they have at Kinkos. They seem to be pretty high quality.

And so, once the print comes out too dark, I'm forced to brighten the painting, and print again; wasting money, and killing the painting somewhat.

Any advice would help? I'd google, but I'm not exactly sure where to begin. I'll go google now to get myself a bit more... educated.

[Affected]

That the prints come out darker is common, it's a side effect of going from showing the images on a luminescent device to relying on light reflected off a surface, like you do with any kind of print. I tend to find upping brightness between 15-20 points in brightness/contrast is a fair rule of thumb, although I'm sure anyone actually versed in the art of printing will be gritting their teeth at such crudeness. Actually now that I think about it, you'd be better off adjusting gamma curves, so you preserve the black point of your image. At best you should have a colour profile for the printer you're using, and be using a calibrated monitor.

As for CMYK, it simply can't display all the colours RGB can, so yes, some hues will turn out rather dull. I don't know if painting directly in CMYK is a good idea, might be a bit of a pain, but the CMYK preview will let you check your colours from time to time to ensure you're not going too far off the gamut available at print time. Also the Photoshop colour picker will show a little warning triangle when you select a colour that is not within the CMYK gamut and even auto-suggest a safe colour.

[B0b]

screen colours = 16.7 million
CMYK print = approx 12,500

CTRL/CMD+Y in Photoshop will turn on CMYK Preview mode

do you use CMYK colour slider or RGB in PS?

[Tzan]

[B0b]

kinkos, you'll prolly want sRGB files..