Design in CMYK or RGB?

[David Rogers]

it may well LOOK better on screen in RGB – but if you are attempting to use say pure 100% YELLOW ink with no dither…when you convert it ti CMYK…it won’t be 100% anymore!! (about 96% Y 4% Cyan or something) resulting in dirty looking yellows.

Also – CMYK is incapable of producing certain colours viewable in RGB.

[Neill Jackson]

I agree with David.
If you are using a vector based package like Corel Draw it would not increase your file size (unlike a Raster file) if you use CMYK and the colours are easier to understand. i.e. 100% Yellow + 50% Magenta = Orange (easy) but the same colour in RGB would be Red=247 Green=148 Blue=29 (not so easy to remember).
Neill

[John Hughes]

Thanks for replies.

I was thinking more on the lines of which is best for colour output from the printer rather than what is best visually on the screen.

I have been printing for about 10 years and used CMYK but the Corel guys say RGB is best.

John

[Alan Drury]

I always work in CMYK . If your colour manager is set right in Corel and your monitor is a decent one you should print pretty close to what you see on screen. Corel now has a proofing preview so if you do have rgb objects/images on screen using this option will display how it will print – if you work in CMYK it will display properly anyway. The proofing also enables viewing with different settings ie coated media or uncoarted and using different profiles, I use Euroscale but there are others.
If David reads this I’m sure he can give you chapter and verse on colour management and RIP settings.
Alan D

[Harry Cleary]

quote Alan Drury:

I always work in CMYK . If your colour manager is set right in Corel and your monitor is a decent one you should print pretty close to what you see on screen. Corel now has a proofing preview so if you do have rgb objects/images on screen using this option will display how it will print – if you work in CMYK it will display properly anyway. The proofing also enables viewing with different settings ie coated media or uncoarted and using different profiles, I use Euroscale but there are others.
If David reads this I’m sure he can give you chapter and verse on colour management and RIP settings.
Alan D

Any chance of a tutorial (screenshots) of how you guys are set up in Corel? Would love to see if I am on the same page with regards to colour management. Doing more and more leaflet/flyer/card designing and printing these days.

[Stephen Morriss]

I used to use CMYK but have changed over to RGB and get better colour out of the printer (Roland SP540)
Not sure why as in theory CMYK should be better bit I was getting muddy colours which changing to RGB cured.

Roland also recommend using RGB during design, again I’m not sure why.

I also found to get a decent black I’d have to make sure I used 100% CMYK otherwise black would come out as a dark gray.

Steve

[Simon Strom]

I think it could also depend on the end use. If you are doing graphics for items that will only be seen on screen (web, cell phone), then RGB would be fine. Printing used derivations of CMYK as others have said, you can get out of gamut colors working in RGB. Typically you’ll get a warning though if you have out of gamut colors. One caveat may be that some software applications have excellent RGB to CMYK color space conversion or even the printer RIP is doing the conversion. I’ve talked to some photographers that have a total system of color management. Calibrating the monitor is one major thing they do. I usually just do a basic calibration of my Mac monitor with the built in tools. You could opt to go for using a spectrometer, such as a Spyder Pro http://spyder.datacolor.com/ or a few people prefer the Color Munki http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1513 I’ve heard that the Pantone Huey isn’t all that great. Ambient lighting and what surround the workstation also can effect color. Neutral grays work best.

[John Hughes]

Harry – here you go. Hope it helps but it’s 66 pages of not very exciting stuff!

http://coreldraw.com/wikis/howto/designer-s-guide-to-color-management.aspx

John

[Neill Jackson]

Agreed there is always a slight difference between RGB and CMYK sent files.

You can draw in CMYK, in Corel, so its easy then save using:-
File > Publish to PDF >
Click the Settings. . . button >
Advanced TAB >
and change the Colour Management to RGB. Or vice versa.
Then Click OK and Save.
Neill

[David Milisock]

quote John Hughes:

When designing / drawing etc do you have your work space set in CMYK or RGB ?
Just been on Corel forum and the consensus is that RGB is best and let the RIP convert to CMYK.
Appreciated that colour management is complicated, to say the least, but would be interested to know what you use.

Cheers
John

Assuming your RIP honors embedded profiles or that you properly use an assumed color space set up on the RIP. Pure hues, (yellow, magents ECT) can be an issue of how the media profile was built.

Your design color space is dependent upon your desired outcome. If you’re attempting to match corporate identities then it’s best to utilize the color space in their file.

Spot colors can be tricky, some people let them convert at the RIP, however depending on the age of the RIP and if it’s been kept up to date conversions in the same shop on different RIPS can produce different results. Matching Adobe conversions can be difficult as Adobe has not kept up with Pantone specifications, I simply use CorelDRAW X6 or X5 and convert spot color to RGB using the LAB specification.

RGB elements in your file should be no issue as long as the media profile is properly gray balanced, preserves pure hues and the RIP honors embedded profiles or you use an assumed color space work flow.

[David Rowland]

Ah David replied, I still need to finish reading your documents on Colour management in Corel

It is a sore topic for those who don’t follow it, not all versions of Corel are the same, X5 & X6 are the first to offer "what you see on the screen is what you should get near" quality.

[John Hughes]

Dave, have a read through this Coreldraw forum topic – which is still running and where I found the CM document.
All very confusing – well to me anyway!

John

[David Milisock]

quote Dave Rowland:

Ah David replied, I still need to finish reading your documents on Colour management in Corel

It is a sore topic for those who don’t follow it, not all versions of Corel are the same, X5 & X6 are the first to offer “what you see on the screen is what you should get near” quality.

>X5 & X6 are the first to offer "what you see on the screen is what you should get near" quality.
Not quite true, the problem being that there was, (until I wrote my X4 book) no proper instruction on how to set up CorelDRAW color management. With that said X5 was the first version of CorelDRAW where the color management didn’t speak Canadian Klingon!

[David Milisock]

quote John Hughes:

Dave, have a read through this Coreldraw forum topic – which is still running and where I found the CM document.
All very confusing – well to me anyway!

John

The thing about color management is that it’s best though of as a completion backwards principle. I.E. where am I going? Is it ICC color managed all the way? Is it properly calbrated.

for the most part the answer to the last question is no and therin lies the biggest issue.