Participant

Question

RGB to CMYK conversion issue- Pulling my hair out@

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
August 10, 2011
9 replies
55838 views

Hi there-

I have downloaded a VECTOR image from Shutterstock, and it was built as an RGB file. When I try to convert it to CMYK (File-->Document Mode-->Concert to CMYK), it totally whacks out the image. I have tried everything I know how to do, and can't figure this out. I've tried changing the colors in the palette to CMYK, but it doesn't convert them permanently.

I'm attaching two files (as JPEGS so you can see the problem), one shows the sunshine image nice and smooth. The other is after the conversion to CMYK.

If you have any ideas, or want to see the actual file, please email me at bsmith6356@gmail.com and I will send you the actual .eps file.

THANK YOU!

Brent

This topic has been closed for replies.

Sirene2829716

Participant

I have faced the same issue, several times! I finally decided to open the illustrator file in Photoshop and change the color mode from there. If you want to place the file in Indesign, it works!

E

EliudC

Participant

Save it as an eps, then you won't get that weird gradient flare

JonathanArias

Legend

i would just save it as .tiff from illustrator, that will make it CYMK.

J

jigneshchaudhari

Participant

https://youtu.be/UMvjJ2NCYmw

Check out this video, If you gonna print your file after all, follow the methods in this video Gradient RGB to CMYK conversion - YouTube it'll give you 99% same result after printing that file. There're no other ways to solve this issue, that's why I would like to use this trick for printing.

@bsmith2608

@Monika Gause

@artboy

A

Anonymous

hi & good evening..

I'm just started my intern and I rarely used AI before. So, there are many things that i want to know.

My senior designer asked me to design either ;

option A: using AI in CMYK mode. After that before print, he asked me to open AI file in Photoshop and convert to RGB and save as JPEG. Then, you can print the JPEG file.

option B: Using AI in CMYK mode but the color using PANTONE color.

So, I just decided using option A because its my first time heard about PANTONE.

I don't really understand why I have to do that. When I asked him, he just simply say to brighten up the output. When I asked he again why, he mad at me.

anyway lots and lots and lots of thanks to all of you.

p/s: sorry if you find this hard to understand. Still improving my english

Monika Gause

Community Expert

nmierapkz schrieb:
hi & good evening..
I'm just started my intern and I rarely used AI before. So, there are many things that i want to know.
My senior designer asked me to design either ;
option A: using AI in CMYK mode. After that before print, he asked me to open AI file in Photoshop and convert to RGB and save as JPEG. Then, you can print the JPEG file.
option B: Using AI in CMYK mode but the color using PANTONE color.
So, I just decided using option A because its my first time heard about PANTONE.
I don't really understand why I have to do that. When I asked him, he just simply say to brighten up the output. When I asked he again why, he mad at me.
anyway lots and lots and lots of thanks to all of you.
p/s: sorry if you find this hard to understand. Still improving my english

Please create your own thread. Discussing your completely different issues in this old thread will only confuse everyone.

artboy

Participant

i had the same problem and I just used the steps from John Kallios which work. Thanks John! I also did a run around by saving the vector art as a pdf preset at PDF/X - 1a:2001.

Then I opened illustrator with the settings at cmyk then went to file open, chose the pdf, and the art was as it viewed in rgb.

A

Anonymous

Expand the object, then convert to cmyk

E

emil emil

Inspiring

John Kallios wrote:
Expand the object, then convert to cmyk

That will make no difference for RGB to CMYK conversion

Monika Gause

Community Expert

I got another piece of vector art in RGB which had the same issue. I forget what I originally

posted but the simplest way to get a proper CMYK conversion is to select your art/object and go to object -

flatten transparency. I do notice some white hair lines in the final art

(seems to be where one mask of an imbedded gradient meets another). But the overall result

is pretty good.

When you flatten transparency you will almost always get white lines because of the stitching. You won't even need to change document color mode in order to get the stitching.

A

Anonymous

Hi Brent,

Not sure how the file is built, but one thing to check is if the file uses "Opacity Masks". It's a feature under the Transparency window.

Most of the time this creates issues going the other direction (CMYK>RGB). This is due to the Opacity mask being 100% black in CMYK (well, in some parts going to 100% since I'm guessing gradients could be used) . The black gets translated to an RGB value "near black" (about 35.31.31 RGB). Versus the 0.0.0 RGB that is "true RGB black".

Make sure the Transparency window up and select the gradient you have issues with. It there is a link and a second box (looks like a layer mask in PSD).

Then that could be your issue.

Good luck.

Mylenium

Legend

but it doesn't convert them permanently.

If the colors don't stick at the values you specified, then your document is not CMYK and you only have converted the objects that make up the artwork, that is AI tries to mimic the percentages based on RGB equivalents. That aside, there is no easy way to convert transparencies between modes. The appearance changes 99% of the time due to how the blending is calculated differently. Adjusting your graphic will probably require much more work than just switching modes, but without seeing it,nobody can tell you the exact steps. i would assume that the RGB version is simply using Screen blending mode to fade the edges, but that simply won't work in CMYK and you will genuinely have to create fade gradients...

Mylenium

B

bsmith2608Author

Participant

Hi Mylenium-

Thanks for the input. The thing that I find so odd is that all of the gradients (except one) are made of black. There is only one gradient in the file that is made up of an orange to yellow. It almost seems like I should be able to change the orange to yellow gradient by creating new colors (that match the orange and yellow) out of CMYK...and that the rest would be fine during the conversion since the colors are black only.

Any way that I can send you the image to take a quick look?

Brent

E

emil emil

Inspiring

I checked your file, it is what Mylenium said. The rays were created with a lot of objects (ellipses) with grayscale gradient in screen blending mode over an orange/yellow gradient background. In screen blending mode only the color lighter than the orange/yellow gradient background is visible.

To fix that in CMYK mode you have to change the gradient and transparency of each object to achieve the same appearance which with this graphic is a lot of work. If it is me I will scale the graphic at a printing size, select all except the text, and go Object > Rasterize. Then convert to CMYK.

If you do it that way, make sure to do it on a copy and keep the original RGB file for different printing sizes.

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