Printing RGB?
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- ********
I have CMYK files in RGB for some reason. Is printing in RGB going to change the output in any way?
- ********0
Or should I convert them to CMYK before I send to the printer?
- ********0
Press printing? CMYK
Large format - RGB is ok
- benfal990
yeah depend on what you print and where
- ********0
Laser print, one offs.
- ********0
What color profile should I use too?
- The one the printer is using. Ask them to send you one if possible.pango
- ********0
You should be ok with laser prints at RGB
Not sure a color profile is really needed. Its not like you will be matching spot colors right?
- d_rek0
RGB should be fine. Your files will suffer through some conversion and as long as they're not out of gamut you should be OK.
Flipside, I have worked with a printer several times now that prefers RGB files to CMYK for that very reason - the gamut is larger and they can get better color from an RGB file.
As someone mentioned above - it's all in who you print through.
- pango0
Inkjet at home - RGB
Lazer - RGB
Large Format (inkjet) - RGB
Offset or Press - CMYKKeep your working Profile unless you have a profile the printer provides.
Best advice - Always Ask your printer. They are only a phone call away.
Best tip printing stuffs - ASK YOUR PRINTER!Cheers! :P
- stage0
If it has a lot of solid colours (for example stuff drawn/coloured in mspaint) I found that converting to CMYK before hand made it print way way WAY better. Try converting it to custom cmyk's and seeing which one most accurately works for you (one of the tokyo ink custom settings in photoshop did it for me), this goes for both laser and inkjet prints.
- Glitterati_Duane0
This dude sells a lot of his posters and he gets them all printed digitally in RGB.
http://signalnoise.bigcartel.com…
He says that he sent a poster to the printer in RGB format accidentally once and got much richer colour and has been doing it intentionally ever since. That being said; for an offset job the colour still obviously needs to be CMYK.
- monNom0
I'm going to go against the grain here and recommend converting to CMYK before hand off. The reason being, inkjet and colour laser use CMYK inks (some use additional inks but generally, it's CMYK). If you give them an RGB file there's going to be a conversion in there somewhere, and you won't be the one making the decisions on how the file is converted. (ie: will rendering intent be perceptual? relative? saturation?, is that bright 255 red that won't reproduce better as an orange/red or a magenta/red in the composition?)
When you do the conversion, you get to make those decisions in areas that dumb software doesn't consider.
- pango0
^ you have got some point right but most of the inkjet printer (Regular and Large format) now a day are designed for working more conveniently with RGB. as long as your fallow the profile and use the right paper.
instead of figuring out how to convert it, using the right profile save a lot of time, result will be consistent and 90% of the time prints better than me messing around.
i had the same thought as you do but I like how my result is pretty predictable and consistent now.
- bjladams0
@monMon- totally agree. I work as a printer for a long time, lots of people would send in rgb files and we'd have to convert them all to cmyk. the new rips have the option to convert within them, but it's still a bit of an unpredictable outcome. sometimes it's richer, sometimes they come out looking muddy. (this is for large format at least) - seems to do with the lc and lm reading. we had one machine that preferred rgb, but printing that way caused the ink to fade within a year or so due to the high yellow output. best thing to do is ask your printer.
- benfal990
sRGB is often a good color profile
- for a monitor, but it cannot be reproduced in print...it just can'tmonospaced
- tesmith0
We generally offer a test print from each colour mode. With our RIP's I've never had a client see a difference. Separations will be a different issue.
- benfal990
monospaced,
we have two large inkjet printer in here, two 60 inches HP. And both have sRGB as internal color profile.- so, what you see on screen, this is what the ptinter reproduce.benfal99
- I know that's what you think, but it's simply not true. Inkjet just can't reproduce the full gamut.monospaced
- Simple limitations from using paper and pigment. Light has a much wider gamut...that's a fact.monospaced
- still, both of my plotter roll on sRGB. So is my Photoshop and my screen.benfal99