RGB vs. CYMK on a std pc printer

T
Posted By
TooSano
Jul 13, 2004
Views
410
Replies
12
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Closed
Is there any advantage of one over the other on a basic pc printer, when color seps aren’t involved?
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cmyk pc print rgb vs

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B
bhilton665
Jul 13, 2004
From: "TooSano"

Is there any advantage of one over the other on a basic pc printer, when color seps aren’t involved?

If you mean the Epson – Canon – HP type consumer inkjets, then they are expecting a RGB file, which their driver converts to CMYK. If you give them a CMYK input it will get translated to RGB and then back to CMYK, which is not what you want to happen.
TR
Tiemen Rapati
Jul 13, 2004
Really?! That goes for all consumer bubble/inkjets?!

"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
From: "TooSano"

Is there any advantage of one over the other on a basic pc printer, when color seps aren’t involved?

If you mean the Epson – Canon – HP type consumer inkjets, then they are expecting a RGB file, which their driver converts to CMYK. If you give
them a
CMYK input it will get translated to RGB and then back to CMYK, which is
not
what you want to happen.
W
Waldo
Jul 13, 2004
Tiemen Rapati wrote:

Really?! That goes for all consumer bubble/inkjets?!

Yup, and your colors are getting really ugly I found out myself three years ago 🙁

Waldo
B
bhilton665
Jul 13, 2004
If you mean the Epson – Canon – HP type consumer inkjets, then they are expecting a RGB file, which their driver converts to CMYK.

From: "Tiemen Rapati"

Really?! That goes for all consumer bubble/inkjets?!

That’s what the Epsons do, the ones I’m most familar with, even the Professional models like the 4000, 7600 and 9600. I doubt most users of these printers would know how to generate accurate CMYK colors so I’d be surprised to learn that there are inkjets that don’t do this for you, but I guess it’s possible. The guy *did* ask about "a basic PC printer" …
T
TooSano
Jul 13, 2004
Thanks for the info, I found out by accidentally printing from cymk and it didn’t look too good!

"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
From: "TooSano"

Is there any advantage of one over the other on a basic pc printer, when color seps aren’t involved?

If you mean the Epson – Canon – HP type consumer inkjets, then they are expecting a RGB file, which their driver converts to CMYK. If you give
them a
CMYK input it will get translated to RGB and then back to CMYK, which is
not
what you want to happen.
N
nomail
Jul 13, 2004
TooSano wrote:

Is there any advantage of one over the other on a basic pc printer, when color seps aren’t involved?

Yes. You MUST use RGB, because the drivers are based on RGB input. AFAIK there is no ‘basic PC printer’ that requires CMYK input or can even handle CMYK input properly (except with special drivers and/or RIP software). If you do convert to CMYK, the printerdriver will convert it back to RGB first and then convert to its own CMYK (or CcMmYK) again. The result is horrible.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/
T
tacitr
Jul 14, 2004
Is there any advantage of one over the other on a basic pc printer, when color seps aren’t involved?

No.

Consumer-grade printers print CMYK (or CcMmYK), but it’s not the same CMYK as commercial offset printing presses use. The cyan in particular is bluer than offset CMYK.

The software that drives consumer inkjet printers expects RGB data. If you send a CMYK image to a consumer printer, the driver software will convert the image to RGB, then back to the printer’s own variety of CMYK. This typically produces inferior results to simply using RGB in the first place.

—
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NS
n8 skow
Jul 16, 2004
Ummm, our Pro7600 does accept CMYK – and our pair of 10000’s…

n8

That’s what the Epsons do, the ones I’m most familar with, even the Professional models like the 4000, 7600 and 9600. I doubt most users of
these
printers would know how to generate accurate CMYK colors so I’d be
surprised to
learn that there are inkjets that don’t do this for you, but I guess it’s possible. The guy *did* ask about "a basic PC printer" …
N
nomail
Jul 16, 2004
n8 skow wrote:

Ummm, our Pro7600 does accept CMYK – and our pair of 10000’s…

Sure, it ‘accepts’ CMYK. But the results are not good if you do that with the standard Epson driver.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/
NS
n8 skow
Jul 16, 2004
Running Fiery ColorWise Pro Tools here…
Do people actually ‘use’ the standard drivers???

=)
Sorry – I shoulda stated I was using RIP in my post…

n8

Sure, it ‘accepts’ CMYK. But the results are not good if you do that with the standard Epson driver.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/
B
bhilton665
Jul 16, 2004
From: "n8 skow"

Sorry – I shoulda stated I was using RIP in my post…

Yah, that’s DEFINITELY what a ‘standard PC printer’ uses 🙂
NS
n8 skow
Jul 17, 2004
lol – I just can’t imagine dropping $3-4k on a printer for home use – let alone without a good RIP…

=)
n8

Yah, that’s DEFINITELY what a ‘standard PC printer’ uses 🙂

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