CMYK Spaces

As we can see in this illustration CMYK gamuts come in all shapes and sizes. The thing to remember about CMYK Spaces is that they are entirely device dependent. Just converting an RGB file to CMYK in Photoshop without first looking at your color settings could spell disaster! What kind of CMYK printer is your file going to? Is it a sheetfed press with coated stock or a high speed web press? Getting this conversion right is very important. Knowing the intended destination for your file will make life much easier. Find out from your printer exactly what settings they require. We can choose from a wide variety of settings in the CMYK pulldown in the Color Settings preferences in Photoshop. Remember that if you are printing to a colour desktop inkjet printer directly from Photoshop, it is really an RGB device even though it uses CMYK inks! So for best results keep your files in RGB mode. When you have to make your conversion to CMYK do so, and then do a “save as” to keep your original RGB file intact.

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