P: Exporting in Cmyk

Report · Nov 27, 2025

Lightroom does not allow me to export in CMYK for printing... I think this is a no brainer, would love to here about why this is a feature only available on photoshop, most photographers who want to print will be concerned by this...

I no longer have photoshop in my plan, nowadays plan is more expensive and includes less...

Quite dissapointed with adobe here.

Example here of photo printed in RVB creates a terrible version compared to photo on screen... I'm learning but this is frustrating that I need photoshop just for this...

Report · Dec 01, 2025

Lightroom does not allow me to export in CMYK for printing... I think this is a no brainer, would love to here about why this is a feature only available on photoshop, most photographers who want to print will be concerned by this...
By @Emilien_Reynal4328

I agree it’s too bad CMYK is not supported. CMYK profile support was available in earlier versions of Lightroom (Classic), but it was removed some time ago.

The current workaround is to open the image in Adobe Camera Raw (from Adobe Bridge or Photoshop) and save a CMYK copy from there, because for some unexplained reason, Camera Raw still supports CMYK profiles for both soft-proofing and export even though Lightroom Classic does not.

However, sending CMYK for print is not the “no-brainer” as it once was. Prepress has largely moved to late-binding workflows, where the client is told to send RGB images with embedded profiles and the images are converted to the correct CMYK profile at the RIP. (This helps prevent clients from converting to a CMYK profile that does not match the actual press profile, and is generally a much more flexible workflow.)

For desktop printing, practically all photo printers are designed to receive RGB data, not CMYK, and they too convert that RGB to their ink set in the printer driver. Also, pro-level photo inkjet printers can reproduce a larger color gamut than CMYK so, sending CMYK doesn’t take full advantage of the available color range provided by their 10 or 12 inks.

For the same reasons, when sending a photo to a pro photo lab, they expect an RGB file, not CMYK.

Based on that, although some photographers do need CMYK support to print on press, it is probably no longer as common as providing RGB photo files. It would still be nice if Lightroom Classic supported CMYK profiles for soft-proofing and export.