no cmyk conversion in ps elements or 5.0 LE

"beki" wrote in message

does anyone know of an add-on that can be downloaded to activate this facility…?

alternatively is there a good conversion program that can be downloaded to deal with this issue? I am a photographer and find i always have issues when printing my work, it usually comes out looking darker than intended and also sometimes the colours look a little out of wack. It is really frustrating as i cannot upgrade s/w at this time but have a commitment to offering quality work.

Can anyone offer suggestions?

Converting your images to CMYK is unlikely to fix your problem. With that caveat, one free way to perform this conversion is to with the drycreekphoto’s converter:
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/tools/profile_converter/

You will also need the appropriate CMYK profiles, which you may download from www.adobe.com. I suggest using the SWOP v6 coated or uncoated profile. Incidentally, the profile_converter is also a free way to convert a CMYK image to RGB, should you ever be confronted with a CMYK image from another source. You may also use this utility to manipulate hexachrome and hifi files. http://www.argyllcms.com/ is another extensive source of free conversion utilities, and much more.

I am also wrestling with the task of calibration.. i have done the gamma calibration in windows xp but am not convinced.

If you are using Adobe Gamma, it does a good job of calibrating a CRT monitor. Adobe Gamma is less effective, and can even be useless for LCD displays.

For an LCD, if you are unable to arrive at a satisfactory calibration, you may, as have many others, end buying at a monitor calibration device. The cheapest of these is the Pantone Huey, which at the moment costs $75 from buydig.com, including shipping. Although many respectable people advocate the use of such devices, I am one of the controversial few who believe they are generally a waste of money, and may even give a false sense of security. Save your money – if your budget is limited, get an old CRT no one is using, calibrate it with Adobe Gamma, and use it as your accurate primary display, reserving the LCD screen for your tool palettes..

That problem aside, once your monitor is reasonably calibrated, you may manually calibrate your printer using a test strip and procedure that are available here:
http://www.curvemeister.com/downloads/TestStrip/digital_test _strip.htm

I have adjusted several printers to a good degree of accuracy using this test strip, and tweaking the color controls in the printer driver.

Again, there are hardware and software solutions the purport to calibrate your printer, all vying for your hard earned money. In fact many people purchase the monitor calibration devices, expecting it to solve their problem, only to find that they need to make a much more substantial investment to "calibrate" their printer.

The order of events is important – get your monitor looking good first, and then match your printer to the appearance of the monitor. Don’t adjust your monitor to match the print.

Also I cannot get
ps elements to find my profile, only ps 5.0 le will. I’m so not technical and would really appreciate any light that can be shone in my direction on these issues.

PS Elements supports two working spaces: sRGB and Adobe RGB. My advice would be to stick with sRGB, which in Elements is specified in the color settings (ctrl-shift-K) as "Web Graphics".

Keep at it – people were printing excellent photographs before any calibration devices were available at all – you can do it too. —
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

"beki" wrote in message

does anyone know of an add-on that can be downloaded to activate this facility…?

alternatively is there a good conversion program that can be downloaded to deal with this issue? I am a photographer and find i always have issues when printing my work, it usually comes out looking darker than intended and also sometimes the colours look a little out of wack. It is really frustrating as i cannot upgrade s/w at this time but have a commitment to offering quality work.

Can anyone offer suggestions?

I am also wrestling with the task of calibration.. i have done the gamma calibration in windows xp but am not convinced. Also I cannot get ps elements to find my profile, only ps 5.0 le will. I’m so not technical and would really appreciate any light that can be shone in my direction on these issues.

cheers in advance.

beki

Hi.

If you are printing on your own inkjet printer, you should not convert to CMYK, you should output to it in RGB.

Your incorrect colours are more than likely due to lack of Colour Management.

If you are using a CRT Monitor then Adobe Gamma will Calibrate it easily. If it is a Flat Panel then a hardware device will almost certainly be needed.

You will also need to obtain ICC Profiles for your Printer / Ink / Paper combination. The easiest way is by using all 3 from the same maker, but some of the independant Paper makers do supply Profiles for their papers in some Printers.

You also need to read up a little on how to use these profiles.

Roy G

Roy G wrote:

"beki" wrote in message

does anyone know of an add-on that can be downloaded to activate this facility…?

alternatively is there a good conversion program that can be downloaded to deal with this issue? I am a photographer and find i always have issues when printing my work, it usually comes out looking darker than intended and also sometimes the colours look a little out of wack. It is really frustrating as i cannot upgrade s/w at this time but have a commitment to offering quality work.

Can anyone offer suggestions?

I am also wrestling with the task of calibration.. i have done the gamma calibration in windows xp but am not convinced. Also I cannot get ps elements to find my profile, only ps 5.0 le will. I’m so not technical and would really appreciate any light that can be shone in my direction on these issues.

cheers in advance.

beki

Hi.

If you are printing on your own inkjet printer, you should not convert to CMYK, you should output to it in RGB.

Your incorrect colours are more than likely due to lack of Colour Management.

If you are using a CRT Monitor then Adobe Gamma will Calibrate it easily. If it is a Flat Panel then a hardware device will almost certainly be needed.

You will also need to obtain ICC Profiles for your Printer / Ink / Paper combination. The easiest way is by using all 3 from the same maker, but some of the independant Paper makers do supply Profiles for their papers in some Printers.

You also need to read up a little on how to use these profiles.
Roy G

Roy,
Do you know anything about, or have experience with the Huey calibration device? It sounds good, and cheap, but does it work? I use a laptop but the Pantone solid coated colours I use in Photoshop don’t look like those in the reference guide. It’s not a huge issue right now but will in the future.
—
Gator Bait