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FeedbackCommunityMember
Inspiring
January 16, 2012
Open for Voting

P: CMYK soft proofing needed

  • January 16, 2012
  • 58 replies
  • 2998 views

Following a discussion on the LR4 beta forum:

Converting to CMYK and soft proofing in CMYK are two completely different things, so at least we need a CMYK softproofing.

During the last years I ran into a lot of problems due to modern LED lightning on the scene, it is able to produce colors (especially in the blues) far away out of the CMYK color space. Converting pictures to CMYK later after my initial processing can change a picture dramatically, a bit similar to a conversion to b/w.

So even if you have to deliver your material in RGB and someone else is doing a professional conversion later, you should be able to predict what can happen to your material!

So if you deliver material that will be converted – earlier or later – to CMYK: You need at least a simple soft proof. Otherwise it can happen that you deliver material that simply can’t be published.

    58 replies

    Show previous replies
    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    April 17, 2017
    Dan’s very tired old ideas about correcting in CMYK should go the way of the dodo bird. Even Dan later moved to using Lab, a device independent color space for this work. CMYK is an output ready, specific color model and all over the map. And LR is a totally RGB processing path so all you’ll get from it is either CMYK values (gone, not really necessary; we have Lab) or it maybe converting to some CMYK space when you export. So you can totally forget about Dan’s old CMYK “fix a trud appearing image in Photoshop” in this product. And IF you still have a CMYK file, you can’t process it in LR; again it’s engine is solely RGB (it IS the ACR, raw converter engine). So what’s the point of soft proofing in a color space you can’t edit? Answer: none.
    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    L
    lightproof
    Participant
    April 17, 2017
    Soft proofing without the ability to ALSO convert and export to CMYK is kind of useless
    No, it's not. For many people it's essential for color correction (Dan Margulis way). And if your goal is still a CMYK file, you can make adjustments in Lightroom but make the color space conversion itself in Photoshop or other software (either free or proprietary).

    Although I agree that prepress color correction and CMYK work is almost exclusively resides in Photoshop domain, I still think that Lightroom should have CMYK soft proofing. The technology is there and I can see no reason why it's such a big deal to bring it back to Lightroom (it's been almost a year), other that it not being a priority.
    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    April 12, 2017
    Soft proofing without the ability to ALSO convert and export to CMYK is kind of useless! Need both and an option for Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent which LR has never provided. That's why this is probably a Photoshop domain.
    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    April 12, 2017
    I also vote for getting back the CMYK softproofing function. It was in the Lightroom, properly working, and now it's gone. CMYK softproof feature is important and extremely useful feature for me as well as for many other graphic designer preparing the hi-quality photos for CMYK output, due to better color corrections of wide-gamut photos prepared for the CMYK ISO output (FOGRA 51 etc.). Simulating the perceptual or relative colorimetric rendering intent is Adobe, please, get this one back into your product.
    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    March 1, 2017
    CMYK isn't a feature any longer so no. It may come back, only Adobe knows for sure. 
    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 1, 2017
    Please can you confirm if this issue has been resolved? I still cannot see my CYMK ICC profiles in Lightroom.
    L
    lightproof
    Participant
    October 4, 2016
    Thanks for working on it! It's essential for those of us who correct skin tones by numbers.

    If at all possible, could you also look into changing the way curves values are displayed during proofing so it shows RGB/CMYK values (depending on proof profile) instead of percentage?
    A
    Avinash_Ramesh
    Participating Frequently
    June 24, 2016
    Hi Andrew,

    Yes, the fact that CMYK profiles had issues dates back to LR 6.4 or even earlier. This issue needs to be sorted at the root .i.e when the CMYK profiles support was introduced and hence requires deeper investigation. This is one of the priority items and will be addressed soon. We thank you for your patience.
    J
    Community Expert
    Jao vdLCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 24, 2016
    Thanks Avinash. That explains it for sure
    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    June 24, 2016
    What a mess. CMYK didn't work at all exporting to JPEG in Print in the last version. STILL doesn't in the last update from the other day. 

    Now new CMYK profiles don't show up but old one's do. Beta issues that should be detected and fixed before release is becoming more the norm for for Adobe over the past few years and it's not a good sign gang! Who's checking this stuff before release? Seem no one. 
    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
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