RGB or CMYK ?

JG
Posted By
John_Gunselman
Feb 1, 2008
Views
238
Replies
3
Status
Closed
I am working on a book idea which will be a number of quite old B&W photos that I am colorizing. The original photos are B&W TIFF files about 20 megs per image and the end result will be a professionally printed coffee table book. I am using Photoshop CS2 running on a PC with Windows XP. When I change modes from greyscale to colorize the pictures would I be better off using RGB or CMYK mode? I know I can save RGB files to CMYK after I am finished colorizing the images with the possibility of slight color shift or would I be better off to stay CMYK all the way through because professional printing uses CMYK? These are colorized images to look like real color but certainly nowhere as detailed as an original color photo. What complicates this, I think, is that computer monitors are RGB. Also, CMYK files are somewhat larger. I suppose this is a question for printer people moreso than Photoshop people, however I’m hoping someone who is a bit of both can guide me on this. Also, I must mention that while I am quite fluid at Photoshop, I am most definitely NOT a computer geek so I’m hoping for a simple response. Thanks in advance for any info you can supply.

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P
Phosphor
Feb 1, 2008
Assuming an offset type 4 color press… I would do it in CMYK, since that will have to be the final output and you want to see (as close to) the correct colors as you put them in.

If your monitor is a correctly calibrated there shouldn’t be much of an issue, however you will need to get some kind of proofs before printing. Talk to your press people.
B
Buko
Feb 1, 2008
Keep everything RGB save these originals. They are your masters.

make copies of the originals convert these to the CMYK with the profile that the printer will give you.
P
Phosphor
Feb 2, 2008
Hmmmm…well, I’ve done a lot of this kind of work and I don’t see any advantage to using RGB, and some disadvantages.

For one thing, RGB has a much larger color gamut and you run the risk of using colors that just don’t translate into CMYK for print or look horrible.

For another thing printers don’t want to see a multicolor black. If you work in CMYK you can control the build of the black lines/areas with much better precision.

But…different strokes. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding what is being done.

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