How to Convert Photos to CMYK
When you submit your materials, which could be photos, graphics and layout to a commercial printer for processing, these should be in CMYK format. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black—the four colors required for the process of commercial printing.
However, most digital cameras save the images that they capture in RGB mode, although they could come in different formats, such as JPG, RAW or TIFF. RGB, as opposed to CMYK, stands for only three colors, namely Red, Green, and Blue. This mode is commonly use on three color monitors like computer screens, digital camera LCD screens, and TV monitors, which is the reason why most images are in RGB.
While most inkjet printers found in homes can read RGB images, commercial printing format, however, is different. So if you have to have advertising materials printed in huge quantities, these images should be brought to the printing press and converted into CMYK mode. Your commercial printer can actually do this for you but they will have to charge you extra because this would mean extra work for them. And this can be time consuming, too, especially for raw photos, which is why they would have to charge you.
But you can actually do this yourself before submission to the printer. Convert your photos into CMYK mode with the following simple steps.
1. You will need to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 for this purpose. Click on “File” the “Open”. You may also opt to press “Ctrl+O” then find the photo file that you need to convert.
2. Check the current mode of your photo by going to “Image” then “Mode”. You can see the current mode it is in from the drop down menu. You will know the current mode because it has a check mark. At the point, the RGB would be the one that is most likely checked.
3. Now change the mode by clicking on “CMYK” while you are still in the drop down menu. The check mark will be moved from the “RGB” to “CMYK”. That is when you know that the mode has already been changed.
4. While the photo is opened, you can already make other changes such as to brighten it, to increase the contrast, or to correct some ugly spots or red eye. These things should be corrected before submitting you photo to the printer.
5. Retain the original format of your photo. Save the edited photo in a different filename but properly labeling it and then adding the letters “CMYK” at the end of the filename so that you will know that is already the edited copy. You can save it as a TIFF or JPG file, depending on your printer’s specifications. You just might want to know that the TIFF file is bigger and therefore will take up more space in your computer. But it does save more details that the JPG file, which usually compresses the image and leaves out a lot of details.
The conversion of photos to CMYK format is easy before submitting your work for commercial printing. As long as you have Adobe Photoshop, you can do this, even if you do not have a lot of knowledge about graphics design. But in case you do not know how to do this, your commercial printer can also do this for you for a fee.
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