Colour management with inkjet printer

Hello,

I’m working my way through Dan Margulis’s Professional Photoshop book, which is heavily geared towards colour correction using curves. I have acheived some excellent results using his techniques, but I am a little confused about one area in particular and was hoping somebody here who’s used the book could help me.

I am able to acheive very pleasing colours working in CMYK and setting correct black and white points, correct skin tones, correct neutral colours etc, as per Dan’s advice. However, my confusion arises when I want to print a corrected image on my inkjet printer. As I understand it, an inkjet printer needs an RGB image which it then converts to its own CMYK profile for print. However, when I convert my image back to RGB for printing, there is sometimes a subtle change in some of the colours on screen (nothing dramatic, but enough for me to notice that some colours are not the same as they were in CMYK).

Is this a limitation of using an inkjet (ie. the fact that inkjets need RGB images)? Or have I failed to understand something? Also, would I be better off saving important images in CMYK and taking them to a decent lab for printing instead?

Unless you are printing on a press, or to a printer with a RIP, it’s an RGB world out there, and you are probably best off converting your images to sRGB for printing.

There are some labs that provide profiles for their printers, and you may be able to arrange to have a little more control over what’s printed. Look around on drycreekphoto.com for specifics.

BTW – it’s the "conventional wisdom" that color correcting in CMYK should only be done if your work is destined for print. I disagree completely. This is no more valid, IMHO, than saying you should not correct in Lab or HSB. Each color space has its advantages. As you mention, CMYK is excellent for subtle colors such as skin tones. and the K channel provides good control over shadows that cannot be done directly in the other color spaces..
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Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

I agree with you about the benefits of using the right colour space for the right job when it comes to correcting, although I haven’t really found much use for HSB yet. I use LAB quite extensively (especially the L for final sharpening) and CMYK for correcting skin tones and contrast. Sometimes I have two versions of an image open – for example an RGB and a CMYK – and this allows no end of options using Apply Image and Calculations.