Printing CMYK in Photoshop – Inaccurate colors

M
Posted By
mibi222
Aug 11, 2005
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1112
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3
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Closed
Somebody please help me. This is driving me CRAZY..!!

Here’s the story:

For testing purposes, I painted 4 separate stripes: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, onto a blank Photoshop CMYK file.

I printed the file with a HP Laserjet 2550 Color printer, and the colors came out **distorted**. (Seems to mix up more yellow into each of the pure CMYK colors, and also becomes darker).

I can tell by comparing these results to the printer’s auto-test page, where each color is pure. By the way, the HP Laserjet 2550 has separate toner cartriges for each of the CMYK colors.

I tried the SAME thing in CorelDRAW, but in this case, the colors came out perfectly!!!

The oddest thing is that when I generated a TIFF file from the Photoshop test sample and imported it into CorelDRAW as CMYK, the print-out comes out **distorted** exactly as if it was printed in Photoshop.

I read somewhere that Photoshop converts a CMYK file into RGB before sending the file to printer which may be the cause of this, but then, why does the problem occur when I import the Photoshop file into CorelDRAW?? And why DOESN’T this occur with a CorelDRAW generated file??

I really need to solve this problem.. I’d greatly appreciate anyone’s help!

Thanks.

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H
Hecate
Aug 11, 2005
On 10 Aug 2005 21:37:19 -0700, "mibi222" wrote:

Somebody please help me. This is driving me CRAZY..!!
1. I take it you aren’t using any colour management?

Photoshop is a colour managed application, Corel Draw can be. What was the set-up in each?

2. I take it you sent an RGB printer (your HP) a CMYK file?

If you send a CMYK file to an RGB printer the file is converted to CMYK as it assumes the file is RGB so you get colour shift. Of course, this all depends on what you are doing for colour management.



Hecate – The Real One

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M
mibi222
Aug 12, 2005
Hi Hecate!

1. I take it you aren’t using any colour management?

I’m not sure where to look for this.

I’m using default settings. In "Print Preview", the color management option is:

Document: (Profile U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2)
Color Handling: Let printer Determine Colors
Printer Profile (Greyed Out): Working RGB – sRGB IEC61966-2.1 Rendering Intent: Relative Colorimetric
Proof Setup Preset (Greyed Out): Working CMYK

CorelDRAW is also set up with default settings. I’m not sure where to look for Color Management here.

2. I take it you sent an RGB printer (your HP) a CMYK file?

The file in Photoshop is CMYK. I assume the laser printer is also CMYK because CorelDRAW CMYK colors print out correctly according to the printer’s test page. (The printer also has separate toner cartriges for each CMYK color).

What I don’t understand is why a photoshop CMYK file containg 100% Magenta is not printed out as 100% Magenta on the laser printer, whereas CorelDRAW prints is correctly??? If it’s because of Photoshop’s Color Management, how do I disable it?

Thanks for your reply!

Hecate wrote:
On 10 Aug 2005 21:37:19 -0700, "mibi222" wrote:
Somebody please help me. This is driving me CRAZY..!!
1. I take it you aren’t using any colour management?

Photoshop is a colour managed application, Corel Draw can be. What was the set-up in each?

2. I take it you sent an RGB printer (your HP) a CMYK file?
If you send a CMYK file to an RGB printer the file is converted to CMYK as it assumes the file is RGB so you get colour shift. Of course, this all depends on what you are doing for colour management.


Hecate – The Real One

Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…
H
Hecate
Aug 12, 2005
On 12 Aug 2005 11:45:38 -0700, "mibi222" wrote:

Hi Hecate!

1. I take it you aren’t using any colour management?

I’m not sure where to look for this.

I’m using default settings. In "Print Preview", the color management option is:

Document: (Profile U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2)
Color Handling: Let printer Determine Colors
Printer Profile (Greyed Out): Working RGB – sRGB IEC61966-2.1 Rendering Intent: Relative Colorimetric
Proof Setup Preset (Greyed Out): Working CMYK

CorelDRAW is also set up with default settings. I’m not sure where to look for Color Management here.

2. I take it you sent an RGB printer (your HP) a CMYK file?

The file in Photoshop is CMYK. I assume the laser printer is also CMYK because CorelDRAW CMYK colors print out correctly according to the printer’s test page. (The printer also has separate toner cartriges for each CMYK color).

What I don’t understand is why a photoshop CMYK file containg 100% Magenta is not printed out as 100% Magenta on the laser printer, whereas CorelDRAW prints is correctly??? If it’s because of Photoshop’s Color Management, how do I disable it?

Thanks for your reply!
Actually, it’s because you’re not using colour management and leaving things on the default. By default CD won’t, by default PS will make assumptions. Note that PS is assuming that your printer is an RGB (sRGB) colour space printer. I don’t know what your printer is capable of – depending upon the laser you should be able to print CMYK as CMYK, but not if PS is converting the file because of the assumption that it’s an RGB printer (hence the profile). OTOH it may be that the printer is an RGB printer in which case you shouldn’t send it a PS CMYK in the first place as the printer will assume it’s RGB and convert it again (which is double conversion).

If you want to print accurate colours using PS you need to have a basic understanding of colour management. Make sure PS has the right printer profile and know what type of printer you have. Because you hadn’t have that knowledge yet, you’re getting an odd result.



Hecate – The Real One

Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…

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