prints: RGB or CMYK?

[mateusrocha]

Hey there people :)

So, I did an illustration in RGB for my class. Went to the printer next to my house, and BAM. Its much more darker than on screen.

I have read about people who makes prints from images in RGB.

Now I don't know if the darker print is because its made in RGB or just the place I went to print had a shitty printer...???

Anyone here who makes print or have had an experience with it... does people who do prints, like Dave etc, do their images in RGB? Or they are converted to CMYK by the printer... or just printed the way it was sended.... ?? Oh so many questions.

If anyone could help me out, I would appreciate :)

[Vigil]

I just paint and print in RGB, but prints are going to be a lot darker since they're not backlit like screens.

[mateusrocha]

I just paint and print in RGB, but prints are going to be a lot darker since they're not backlit like screens.

Yep, the one I printed was very very very dark. I tried one in CMYK and I'm going to print it in a few days... any news I post here haha

Thanks!

[Sickbrush]

RGB vs CMYK usually involves the print house.
If you're printing on a regular printer RGB works perfectly, and the only thing to remember is to print out a test first then adjust your images accordingly.

CMYK is used for large scale printing. meaning both size and number. Yes, if you print 5000 business cards you might be using CMYK or if you're printing a huge banner - same thing.

[mateusrocha]

RGB vs CMYK usually involves the print house.
If you're printing on a regular printer RGB works perfectly, and the only thing to remember is to print out a test first then adjust your images accordingly.

CMYK is used for large scale printing. meaning both size and number. Yes, if you print 5000 business cards you might be using CMYK or if you're printing a huge banner - same thing.

My teacher told me about the adjustments in the curves for printing.. I gonna give it a try :)

Even with CMYK, the second illustration was way darker.

Thanks for the reply Cris! :D

[Anti]

If it means a lot to you it's worth investigating to make sure your monitor/PS are calibrated properly. If the colours are off by a large degree it's possible there's an issue between what you see draw in PS, what your monitor displays, and the data sent to the printer.

It can be a pain to sort out but it's worth checking.

It's also possible that the printer isn't ideal for what you're printing - it may not be good enough.

CMYK is generally preferred for pre-press designs (large scale printing/publications) but if it's one image on a printer I don't think it'd matter a great deal. Check your calibration :)

[Matthew]

The way I was taught was, RGB is the way to go if you're adding color to a current jpg or similar image. CMYK is the way to go if you create your own image from scratch. I'm not sure why, it's just what I was told to do lol.

[Anmaril]

As far as I know RGB and CMYK are just the different colour ranges of a PC screen and a printer. If you save an image in rbg and send it to a printhouse the printer will convert it to cmyk while printing automatically.
The reason that the image is dark is not the colour range, but the fact that you work with an LCD/FTF screen? They are mostly not in true colours and more so a lot of brighter than an old rct would be.
If you work on a pc digitally, keep in mind that your image will be darker afterwards, the new screens are brighter just through their techniques.
When I noticed it first I begun to alter my allready finished images with PS to make them brighter and it went well. But that have its limits.

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RGB vs CMYK usually involves the print house.
If you're printing on a regular printer RGB works perfectly, and the only thing to remember is to print out a test first then adjust your images accordingly.

CMYK is used for large scale printing. meaning both size and number. Yes, if you print 5000 business cards you might be using CMYK or if you're printing a huge banner - same thing.

I have to clear that up. I have worked in a printing house for some time and we had such stuff in my studys as well.
If you create an image in CMYK on your PC, and get it to print it might happen that your product looks different.
Images should be created in RGB on a screen. How much a image will be printed don't alter the prefered colour profile.
Important are:
use the RGB profile the printing house want to see, in Europe mostly sRGB IEC61966-2.1, be aware of the bleeding you might have, means the cut the printing house have to calculate.
Inform yourself on which kind of paper you want to print, what they offer, and what kind of printer they have.
Your document size is not a reason for another colour profile, your desired printing device is. In most cases using RGB is completely ok, because the printer convert it for themself. For professionall printing or at home, doesn't matter.
Hope that helps.