Canon IR 3380i : CMYK / RGB

[johnm@ucopier.com]

Copier is a Canon IR 3380i:

Want to print CMYK and the copier is only letting me choose RGB when in the print output screen in Adobe CS6. Is there a way to have the copier print CMYK, are certain drivers required (PCL, UFR) that will make this option available or is there something internally that needs to be selected.

[MFPTech]

Re: Canon IR 3380i : CMYK / RGB

Copier is a Canon IR 3380i:

Want to print CMYK and the copier is only letting me choose RGB when in the print output screen in Adobe CS6. Is there a way to have the copier print CMYK, are certain drivers required (PCL, UFR) that will make this option available or is there something internally that needs to be selected.

That is an application setting, not a copier setting. The copier uses toner, not light, to create colors.
Last week had a customer that was printing from publisher in RGB and showed him how to select YMCK using "commercial printing" within the Publisher.
Adobe CS6 is an entire suite ... What application are you printing from, Photoshop, In Design? In any case you have to flatten the files and convert your RGB image to CMYK to get it ready for an offset print job.

Hope it helps

[teckat]

Re: Canon IR 3380i : CMYK / RGB

When you take a photograph with a digital camera or scan an image using a digital scanner, the resulting file will use the RGB (Red Green Blue) color space. You can then view it on your computer monitor and print it out using your desktop printer and get a good representation of the colour in the original image; this is because your monitor and printer use the same RGB colour space.

If you need to have your photograph printed by a commercial printer using 'full color process printing', you will have to covert RGB files to CMYK, as a printing press uses the CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow black) co lour space.

The problem is; the range of colors, referred to as gamut, that can be produced using CMYK color inks on paper, is a lot smaller than what can be represented using RGB. This can result in a photograph printing with some of the colors changing hue and looking dull. This often happens to the bright rich blue found in sky areas of an image.

There is no standard fixed CMYK gamut; so the same percentages of CMYK inks will not always produce the same color. There are variations in the inks, the absorbency of the paper, the printing conditions, and different press setups which vary in different parts of the world.

The black ink in CMYK printing is used because the CMY inks do not produce a pure black when added together: they produce a brown color due to impurities in the inks. The black ink when added gives more contrast to the image with darker shadow areas.

It is possible to replace any grey areas of an image (represented by equal amounts of CMY inks) with an equivalent percentage of black ink, thus reducing the amount of ink used. This is referred to as under-color removal (UCR).

Therefore, there are many possible combinations of CMYK to achieve the same image as in the original RGB file.


Converting RGB files to CMYK

In Photoshop, select 'Edit' then 'Color Setting...' and look at the drop-down list under 'Settings'. Here you will see presets for Europe, North America and Japan.


Select a CMYK profile that best suits the final printing conditions, for example, 'ISO Coated v2 (ECI)', which is used for standard ISO printing based on the FOGRA39L characterization data-set applicable to reference printing conditions according to the international standard ISO 12647-2:2004.


Clicking on the 'More Options' button will allow you to set the rendering intent to use when converting from RGB values to CMYK. For continuous tone images such as photographs, selecting 'Perceptual' will generally give the best results while preserving the visual relationships of the source image.


Once you have setup the best colour settings above, you can open the RGB image you want to convert.

A photograph from a digital camera will probably have an embedded RGB colour profile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1). If Photoshop presents a window with 'Embedded Profile Mismatch' then select 'Use the embedded profile'.


If you need to make any adjustments to the image or apply any filters etc., do it now while the image is still in the RGB colour space.

To see which areas of the image that are 'out of gamut'; select 'View' - 'Gamut Warning'. Any colors that turn grey are colors that can not be produced in the CMYK colour space and Photoshop will have to select the nearest colour it can, depending on the rendering intent you selected earlier.


To covert from RGB to CMYK; select 'Image' - 'Mode' - 'CMYK Color'. You will probably notice that some of the colors change and become much duller. As shown in the images above. Here the colour of the sky has changed dramatically from a bright saturated blue to a duller purplish blue.

It is possible to fine tune the CMYK image to improve the colour of the sky and make it a brighter blue. To arrive at the larger image above, I used Photoshop's 'Replace Color' adjustment tool, selecting the sky colour and adjusting the saturation, lightness and hue controls.

[teckat]

Re: Canon IR 3380i : CMYK / RGB

Copier is a Canon IR 3380i:

Want to print CMYK and the copier is only letting me choose RGB when in the print output screen in Adobe CS6. Is there a way to have the copier print CMYK, are certain drivers required (PCL, UFR) that will make this option available or is there something internally that needs to be selected.

Converting to the CMYK Color Space

Here is a list of several common programs with instructions on how to make sure you are working in the CMYK color space. If your program or version is not listed here, don't worry. Most of these instructions will apply to all versions of a program. If at any time you need further help, please call us for assistance. We are happy to talk you through the steps needed to get your document into the CMYK color space.
Microsoft Publisher 2000

Microsoft Publisher defaults to RGB. It is easy to convert everything to a CMYK color space or to start a new document using the CMYK color space. Use the following menu options: Tools/Commercial Printing Tools/ Color Printing and select Process colors (CMYK). Please note that all images incorporated into a layout need to be linked and not embedded in order to maintain the CMYK color space within the image. Using the following menu options does this: Tools/Commercial Printing Tools/Graphics Manager and highlight the embedded image. Click Link and click Browse to locate the original file and link to it. You will then need to send both the images and the layout file to us for printing.
Microsoft Publisher 2003-2007 or later

Select File Tab, then select Info. Select Commercial Print Settings. Select Choose Color Model, then Select Process Colors (CMYK)
Adobe Photoshop

If the file already exists select the following menu options: Image/Mode/CMYK When starting a new file select CMYK for the mode before clicking OK.
Corel Draw 9

Select each object you want to convert. Select the Fill tool and click Fill Color Dialog. Make sure the Color model is CMYK. For each object with an outline: Select the Outline tool and click the Outline Color Dialog. Make sure the Color model is CMYK.
Adobe Illustrator

Select File/Document color mode/CMYK color
Quark Xpress 4.1

Use the following menu options: Edit/Edit Colors/Show Colors in Use/Highlight Color and click Edit. Change model to CMYK and deselect Spot color. Remember to send us your layout and linked images!
Adobe InDesign

Use the following menu options: Window/Swatches and Window/Color. Double click color in Swatches Change color mode to CMYK and color type to Process. Any colors created in the document that are not in the Swatches palette, need to be changed to the CMYK color space. Select each object you want to convert and make sure the Color palette reflects the CMYK percentages. Click top right arrow in the palette to change to CMYK if necessary. Remember to send us your layout and linked images!
Adobe Pagemaker 6.5

Use the following menu options: Window/Show Colors. Double click "colors" in palette and select Model to be CMYK and Type to be Process. Please be advised that Pagemaker does not successfully represent CMYK color on the monitor.

The following programs do not have the capability to convert to CMYK.

Adobe Photoshop LE
Adobe PhotoDeluxe
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Powerpoint
Microsoft Works
Microsoft PhotoDraw
Picture It Publishing

[Fer]

Re: Canon IR 3380i : CMYK / RGB

USE PS PRINTER DRIVERS !!

Pcl and UFR can only receive application output in GDI, windows' graphical language. GDI only works in RGB. If u want to control the printer in CMYK, u need to use PS only. When using PS, the (Adobe) application can output directly in PS to the PS driver. That is the only way u can output in CMYK and steer the printer to the max.

Windows 7 and 2008R2 use a new way to print, using the XPS language instead of GDI. XPS can use CMYK, even with Powerpoint :-) Who needs Adobe now.