Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
Many photographer-artists don’t pay enough attention to CMYK, but it’s important, especially
when you realize that much of the world’s printing is ultimately CMYK-based. In
fact, all inkjet printers print in CMYK (or CcMmYK, or CMYKRB, or whatever variant),
even if they are expecting RGB input. An RGB-to-CMYK conversion is being done somewhere
along the line (unless you’re using a CMYK RIP where you control the conversion),
so it helps to know something about CMYK.
CMYK is the de facto standard of the commercial printing industry so you will undoubtedly
run into CMYK for that reason, too. Anytime you want to create an advertisement,
a brochure, or any project that will end up being printed on an offset lithography press,
you (or someone else) will need to convert your images to CMYK. By using Photoshop’s
CMYK preview functions in combination with ICC profiles (see below) set up for the
type of printing anticipated, you can get a fairly good monitor representation of how things
will look in a particular CMYK, without permanently committing yourself to that printing
space. This keeps you from being surprised at the final printing step, and it lets you
make appropriate image adjustments in advance.
Which Color Space Is Best?
There are many theories (even some fights) about this. Keeping in mind that you’ll need
to come up with your own answers depending on your needs and goals, here are some recommendations:
1. In general, work and save your master files in one of the larger RGB spaces. You can always
repurpose a file to a different color space like CMYK as needed.
2. For a specific, all-purpose working space, choose either Adobe RGB or ColorMatch RGB.
Experiment with other boutique working spaces if you want, but if you’re unsure, stick
with the major ones.
3. If you have very specific needs that only involve one type of CMYK printing, and you
want tight control of your printing colors, it might be advantageous to work in CMYK.
But if you have any inkling of reaching out to other service providers or of other uses
for your images, work in the larger RGB spaces. (If you come from an offset printing
background as I did, you might feel more comfortable working with CMYK numbers,
but my advice is to transition to RGB as quickly as possible.)
4. The same advice goes for sRGB. If you’re working for web output or sending camera
files around, then sRGB might make the best sense. However, if you’re going to print,
or if you’re not sure which type of printing you’ll be doing, pick one of the larger RGB
working spaces.
Tape the following Color Cheat Sheet to your monitor until you have it memorized:
Converting from One Space to Another
Chances are, you will have to convert from one color space into another at some point.
There are several things to keep in mind:
1. Convert as few times as possible. Converting color spaces permanently alters a file’s color
information. Only do it if and when you have to. When you convert from RGB to CMYK,
for example, you’ve forever lost the richer information of RGB. And you can’t get it back!