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D
defaulta6qeln3tquad
Known Participant
November 5, 2025
Question

Converting raster RGB objects to CMYK with no loss of quality

  • November 5, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 243 views

I have yet to find a method of converting raster images to CMYK that doesn't turn them into a pixelated, artifacted mess.  See before and after below:

 

I have tried Convert Colors, Edit Object, and several different Preflight profiles, all with the same result.  The only surefire method I've found for lossless conversion is to open each image one by one in Photoshop and convert them there.  This gets very tedious very quickly.

 

Is there anything I am overlooking, or is that really the only way?

2 replies

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 5, 2025

Conversion from RGB to CMYK would not cause pixelization, as conversion would not affect resolution.

Conversion from RGB to CMYK would not cause artifacting, but saving in the wrong format would. Artifacting would be a result of too much JPEG compression, but the image you show should be saved as a PNG if in RGB and TIFF if in CMYK.

 

The sRGB profile would be the safest before CMYK conversion as it the least color range. What CMYK profile are you using?

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
D
defaulta6qeln3tquadAuthor
Known Participant
November 6, 2025

We receive these files from outside clients so I have no control over how the original images are saved or what color space they use.  We convert to US web coated (SWOP) v2 for printing.  I don't know how or why the image goes from A to B during conversion.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 6, 2025

Can you upload your files? If you don't want to make them public, you can DM me by clicking on my name.

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
Randy Hagan
Community Expert
Randy HaganCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 5, 2025

It's the best way, for sure.

 

You're flipping a big toggle switch when you ask any application to convert colorspaces without any granular controls. Photoshop, for pixel files, and Illustrator, for vector files, have the granular controls to minimize the impact of transiting from the full-range RGB colorspace to more restrictive and reduced color ranges of CMYK reproduction. InDesign does a better job of transiting colorspaces than this, but that's still a relative term.

 

Randy

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