CMYK-get bright colors

K
Posted By
KatWoman
Apr 3, 2006
Views
905
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Sorry if I asked this before

I made a website
www.sheilabarishvoice.com

my original design was only black and white (silver)
client likes purple and requested the other colors
looks great on monitor she is very pleased with it
Had to make business cards
When I changed colors to CMYK, I lose all the bright magenta (fuchsia), it looks dullish rose pink,
and the purple looks duller more violet and flat.
I could not fix it with the swatches from CMYK or the curves etc on the text layers
The client accepted it anyway and it’s already printed.

But for future
Is there any way for me to get the brighter colors to print? I see these type colors in other publications.
I can even achieve better on my inkjet.
Is there some way to use spot colors for this?
will it still be savable as a jpg or tiff flattened?
Please don’t say Illustrator, I am really way noobie at it and not as comfortable as PS.
Related Tags
bright cmyk color

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

T
Tacit
Apr 4, 2006
In article <SufYf.6301$>,
"KatWoman" wrote:

But for future
Is there any way for me to get the brighter colors to print?

No.

Bright, highly saturated colors can not be reproduced in CMYK; no way around it. The best you can do is print the job using spot color, which may or may not be practical, depending on the nature of the job.

Sorry!

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com
MR
Mike Russell
Apr 4, 2006
"KatWoman" wrote in message
Sorry if I asked this before

I made a website
www.sheilabarishvoice.com

my original design was only black and white (silver)
client likes purple and requested the other colors
looks great on monitor she is very pleased with it
Had to make business cards
When I changed colors to CMYK, I lose all the bright magenta (fuchsia), it
looks dullish rose pink,
and the purple looks duller more violet and flat.
I could not fix it with the swatches from CMYK or the curves etc on the text
layers
The client accepted it anyway and it’s already printed.

But for future
Is there any way for me to get the brighter colors to print? I see these type colors in other publications.
I can even achieve better on my inkjet.
Is there some way to use spot colors for this?
will it still be savable as a jpg or tiff flattened?
Please don’t say Illustrator, I am really way noobie at it and not as comfortable as PS.

My take is a little different than tacit’s, though I agree that many colors will be muted when going from RGB to CMYK, not all of them will be. There are ways to deal with this.

The simplest is to use Relative Colorimetric when you make your conversion, and not Perceptual. For artwork, the Saturation intent might be appropriate. Try all three and see which one works best.

In your case, the magenta available in CMYK is better than the one in RGB, provided you do not add too much white to it. Ditto for purple, which is really a darker form of magenta perhaps with a bit of cyan added.

Type and line art should generally be on its own layer, and should be all on the same plate or it will have registration problems.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
C
couragestudio
Apr 4, 2006
Before you specify colors for print (or use them in photoshop where the final output will be CMYK) it’s a good idea to check them in your handy pantone solid to process reference book. Some colors translate to CMYK much better than others. If the client has no budget for spot PMS colors, you can at least avoid any surprises this way by finding the least muddy of the mixed process colors.
-Jim
K
KatWoman
Apr 4, 2006
"couragestudio" wrote in message
Before you specify colors for print (or use them in photoshop where the final output will be CMYK) it’s a good idea to check them in your handy pantone solid to process reference book. Some colors translate to CMYK much better than others. If the client has no budget for spot PMS colors, you can at least avoid any surprises this way by finding the least muddy of the mixed process colors.

well at the time she only wanted a website, no print items I don’t think the budget is so much a problem though if there is a way to get it at a better quality press by using spot color I will tell her so and I am pretty sure she will want it.
What do I ask for at the printer shop?
how do I specify the colors?
I think I got a swatch book here somewhere (pantone)
T
Tacit
Apr 5, 2006
In article <jNBYf.171$>,
"KatWoman" wrote:

What do I ask for at the printer shop?

You ask for the image to be printed using spot colors.

how do I specify the colors?

You can not work in RGB or in CMYK. Instead, you create a grayscale image, then use the New Spot Channel command from the Channels palette to create each spot color. When you’re done, save the image as a DCS2 file.

Note that working in spot colors in Photoshop is quite difficult. You can not work in layers with spot colors, for example. This is the sort of work best done in Illustrator.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com
K
KatWoman
Apr 6, 2006
"tacit" wrote in message
In article <jNBYf.171$>,
"KatWoman" wrote:

What do I ask for at the printer shop?

You ask for the image to be printed using spot colors.

how do I specify the colors?

You can not work in RGB or in CMYK. Instead, you create a grayscale image, then use the New Spot Channel command from the Channels palette to create each spot color. When you’re done, save the image as a DCS2 file.

Note that working in spot colors in Photoshop is quite difficult. You can not work in layers with spot colors, for example. This is the sort of work best done in Illustrator.
I knew that would be the answer. I think next time I’ll hire someone who knows Illy to prepare the files. I really got my hands full learning web design. Printing is another world altogether.

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections