If I painted something in RGB mode will it look okay printed if I convert to CMYK?

[tn100]

or do I have to paint it in CMYK mode from the very beginning?

I want to have both a portfolio online and a flatbook with printed copies. How do I make it so I'm always ready to present both in the best color? Thanks.:medusachow:

[Elwell]

Are you going to be printing on an inkjet printer or commercial offset?

[Anid Maro]

Generally speaking, there are more colors available in RGB than you can get in print. You can convert to CMYK, and (depending on your printer, as Elwell asked) it ought to print as you see. Depending on whether or not you used colors that were "out of gamut" (i.e. colors not available in CMYK mode [or whatever other mode you choose]) the conversion process may change some of your colors.

I myself, when I was working digitally, preferred to use the CMYK gamut from the beginning, but you don't have to do that. You can switch from RGB to CMYK and then, if you see a change in color, do some adjustments so that the new colors work as the old ones did, and then you'd be good to go. After that it's all about the printing equipment you have available and whatnot, which I'm sure others will fill you in on. :)

[tn100]

I have a Canon Pixma ip5000 printer. I believe that it is inkjet. Will that be able to print the right colors if I convert to CMYK at the very end? I also don't know how to convert to CMYK yet so can someone teach me?

[ditchman]

from the top menu

image > mode > CMYK color.

that's it, personally I usually notice very little colour difference (if any).

[Elwell]

I have a Canon Pixma ip5000 printer. I believe that it is inkjet. Will that be able to print the right colors if I convert to CMYK at the very end? I also don't know how to convert to CMYK yet so can someone teach me?

Home inkjet printers are designed to work with RGB files. They do all the conversion/separation automatically. So no, don't work in CMYK unless you have a good reason to do so, and don't bother converting after the fact.

[tn100]

Home inkjet printers are designed to work with RGB files. They do all the conversion/separation automatically. So no, don't work in CMYK unless you have a good reason to do so, and don't bother converting after the fact.

Oh really? Well, I tried printing out one of my digital paintings and the colors seem a bit darker than on the monitor. Is this always the case? It was just regular copy paper though so... maybe higher quality paper will have brighter prints? I don't mind it too much but there were areas on my painting that were meant to look like a glowing neon green but when I printed it out, it just didn't feel bright.

[Elwell]

Plain paper will always give inferior results. Inkjet papers are specially coated so that the ink doesn't soak in and bleed.

[Portus]

Some of the neon blues, reds and greens will not print as bright as you see on screen, you can paint with print prood enabled and it will give you a preview of how the colors will print, also set sRGB as your RBG color profile in Photoshop, it converts much better to CMYK than Adobe RGB in my opinion.

Reds usually print bad almost all shades will print orange or dark magenta, I would save some CMYK reds in your color swatches just to be safe.

[Trick]

Oh really? Well, I tried printing out one of my digital paintings and the colors seem a bit darker than on the monitor. Is this always the case? It was just regular copy paper though so... maybe higher quality paper will have brighter prints? I don't mind it too much but there were areas on my painting that were meant to look like a glowing neon green but when I printed it out, it just didn't feel bright.

Make sure your monitor is calibrated properly, but it's pretty much a rule of thumb that you won't get the same results in print that you see on the screen. Also get yourself a good color swatch book, it's the easy way to pick colors and you can see how they will look on paper first.