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How do I export a file with a CMYK color profile in Lightroom?

New Here ,
May 05, 2014 May 05, 2014

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I'm trying to save a photo with a CMYK color profile to send to a company who will print it for me. I've looked at the color profiles installed on my computer, and quite a few CMYK profiles appear to be there (in   /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended). I'm not sure if they need to be in the "Profiles" folder specifically, or if it matters that they're in a subfolder of that folder. This is on a Mac computer, by the way.

The problem is, when I go to export in Lightroom, and I choose "Other" in Color Profile, I'm not given any of the CMYK options.

Thanks for your help!

Ray

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , May 05, 2014 May 05, 2014

Sorry...you can't. LR doesn't do CMYK, only RGB...you'll need Photoshop or some other app.

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LEGEND ,
May 05, 2014 May 05, 2014

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Sorry...you can't. LR doesn't do CMYK, only RGB...you'll need Photoshop or some other app.

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Community Expert ,
May 06, 2014 May 06, 2014

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Following on from Jeff's comment, create a Photoshop droplet and run it as a post processing step. Instructions here.

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LEGEND ,
May 06, 2014 May 06, 2014

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ray7199 wrote:

I'm trying to save a photo with a CMYK color profile to send to a company who will print it for me. I've looked at the color profiles installed on my computer, and quite a few CMYK profiles appear to be there (in   /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended).

Above and beyond what Jeff and John have told you, be VERY careful converting RGB to CMYK unless you have the specific ICC profile for that print provider. Probably a lot safer to send them tagged RGB and let them convert the data. Converting with a profile that isn't specifically targeted for the print process will produce huge headache's for you and the shop and potentially awful output which is going to be expensive. Ask them if they can accept RGB and send them maybe sRGB which of course you can do from Lightroom.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Community Expert ,
Jul 05, 2014 Jul 05, 2014

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There is no need to convert to CMYK anymore today. In InDesign and other print application you should place RGB images.

See also Re: Re: Converting Images to CMYK for Print Publication

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Explorer ,
Jun 01, 2015 Jun 01, 2015

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Unless, of course, your client specifically requests CMYK - then there's a pretty darned good reason .

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LEGEND ,
Jun 01, 2015 Jun 01, 2015

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LR6 has the provisions to export to CMYK as a JPEG from the Print Module.

Why the same profiles can't be selected from the Export dialog is beyond me. But this is a good first step.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
Jun 01, 2015 Jun 01, 2015

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thedigitaldog - interesting point. Thanks for the heads up.  If only LR 6 wasn't so much slower than LR 5.7 - I'd take advantage of that! As is I just go into bridge and use ACR to convert to CMYK. It offers a direct save option.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 01, 2015 Jun 01, 2015

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Most people require CMYK images because they think they need it for print caused by a lack of accurate knowledge. And for photos it makes less sense as it would make for Photoshop. You need to keep the appearance, not the CMYK values.

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Explorer ,
Jun 01, 2015 Jun 01, 2015

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Ya... I teach photography at a graphic design school and it seems like I spend half my time telling my students to keep things RGB, regardless of what their other profs say. I'll occasionally get a client who wants both rgb and a specific CMYK space (like I did this morning) - otherwise why work in a smaller space?

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LEGEND ,
Jun 01, 2015 Jun 01, 2015

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denniR wrote:

- otherwise why work in a smaller space?

FWIW and perhaps OT, CMYK, depending on the flavor (say SWOP V2) isn't necessarily smaller than RGB (depending on the space, say sRGB). At least if we're talking about size in terms of gamut. There are colors in SWOPv2 that fall outside sRGB gamut. Getting back OT, there are lots of workflows where one has to supply CMYK. Unless you have the profile for that specific output device, IF you can send RGB, do so. Nothing will hose the color of a job better than sending CMYK converted using a process not intended for that output device.

Pretty cool LR6 is getting close to ACR in terms of handling CMYK when necessary. Let's hope it's available in Export as it is in Print some day.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
Jun 03, 2015 Jun 03, 2015

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Good point .

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Community Expert ,
Jun 03, 2015 Jun 03, 2015

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It seems the point has been hammered well down by now, so I'll just sum it up: CMYK is a can of worms. Don't open it unless it's absolutely necessary.

In addition, CMYK is very much dependent on geography. Here in Europe, most commonly used are either ISO Coated (eci) 300%, or Coated FOGRA39. SWOP isn't used anywhere, and the Photoshop default is probably responsible for more bad color here than anything else. People just hit Image Mode > CMYK without any idea what they're doing.

ISO Coated isn't even in the Photoshop installation, you have to download it. But it's not bad as CMYK goes. It's pretty wide gamut, and you need Adobe RGB (and a wide gamut monitor) to cover it.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 30, 2020 Mar 30, 2020

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Now., ECI RGB is included in the standard installation.

 

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New Here ,
Nov 19, 2015 Nov 19, 2015

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(This is how I guess it works but Im only guessing so please tell me whether my logic is right or not)

But if your printer company has told you that it uses a particular CMYK profile (such as FOGRA27 Coated that my print company uses) shouldnt you always use that, and if they havent shoudn't told you you use PhotoProRGB instead of sRGB ?

For example if you are working on a file in Lightroom and you do a SoftProof to sRGB and it shows lots of out of gamut colours, then you do a soft proof to the particular CMYK profile and it shows less and different out of gamaut colours ( i have plenty of files like this). If you now export the file as sRGB its going to have to clip/modify those colours that were invalid for sRGB even if they are fine for CMYK. Then when the printer company converts the sRGB profile to a CMYK profile it has already has some incorrect colours and the problem will worsen when you then convert to CMYK to deal with the colours that the CMYK cannot handle. These colours may not even be the colours that were shown out of gamout when you SoftProofed to CMYK initially because the conversion to sRGB wil have converted the colours that sRGB couldnt handle so when map back to LAB the colours will not be  the same as the original image. You could get round this by modifying the image so it doesnt show any out of gamout colours but you would have to modify it so it doesnt have out of gamout for not just the CMYK profile but also the sRGB profile even though the sRGB profile is not being used for printing! Additionally export as a CMYK profile will allow you to decide whether to use Perceptual or Relative conversion, you dont have this control if the printer company does the conversion (but to export as CMYK you will have to open the image in Photoshop and do it from there, although you can softproof CMYK profiles in LR6 you cant export with a CMYK profile)

Alternatively if they haven't told yo how they would print by all means softproof to sRGB and make some adjustments to improve the chances of a good print. But wouldnt it be better to embed the a ProPhotoRGB as this will always better represent the colours in the original image allowing the printer company to do a better job of converting the print to whatever method they use. The only disadvantage to this method is you would have to export as a 16bit tif rather than 8bit jpeg because 8bits is not enough bytes to properly represent the PhotoPro colour profile.

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LEGEND ,
Nov 19, 2015 Nov 19, 2015

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ijabz wrote:

But if your printer company has told you that it uses a particular CMYK profile (such as FOGRA27 Coated that my print company uses) shouldnt you always use that, and if they havent shoudn't told you you use PhotoProRGB instead of sRGB ?

Yes but always run a contract proof (trust by verify).

For example if you are working on a file in Lightroom and you do a SoftProof to sRGB and it shows lots of out of gamut colours, then you do a soft proof to the particular CMYK profile and it shows less and different out of gamaut colours ( i have plenty of files like this). If you now export the file as sRGB its going to have to clip/modify those colours that were invalid for sRGB even if they are fine for CMYK.

Again, it depends on what the company will accept. Sending (being forced to send) sRGB is about the worst option other than sending CMYK that isn't the correct recipe for the output.

Don't worry too much about out of gamut colors, that's a fact of life and good ICC profiles with good rendering intents will by and large take care of this during conversion. The Out of Gamut Overlay is buggy and inaccurate, not even worth viewing IMHO:

The Out Of Gamut Overlay in Photoshop and Lightroom

In this 25 minute video, I'll cover everything you need to know about the Out Of Gamut (OOG) overlay in Photoshop and Lightroom. You'll see why, with a rare exception, you can ignore this very old feature and still deal with out of gamut colors using modern color management tools.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00O-GTDyL0w

High resolution: http://digitaldog.net/files/OOG_Video.mp4

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Community Expert ,
Nov 19, 2015 Nov 19, 2015

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ijabz wrote:

But wouldnt it be better to embed the a ProPhotoRGB as this will always better represent the colours in the original image

I'd never even consider sending ProPhoto to anyone. That's far too risky.

Adobe RGB has become the graphics industry standard and prepress people everywhere handle this on a daily basis.

ProPhoto is IMO overrated and in any case unsuitable as an output color space. Its use is to give you headroom in the editing process (if you need it, which is not always).

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New Here ,
Nov 19, 2015 Nov 19, 2015

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If the printer knows you are sending ProPhoto is there a problem, why would that be risky ?

I understand that ProPhoto is mainly for editing but it does always allow you to provide an image to a printer which they can convert to their preferred rgbprofile or cmyk and at least the image hasnt already been degraded by the process of converting to sRGB or adobeRGB.

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LEGEND ,
Nov 19, 2015 Nov 19, 2015

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ijabz wrote:

If the printer knows you are sending ProPhoto is there a problem, why would that be risky ?

I understand that ProPhoto is mainly for editing but it does always allow you to provide an image to a printer which they can convert to their preferred rgbprofile or cmyk and at least the image hasnt already been degraded by the process of converting to sRGB or adobeRGB.

It's only risky if the printer is rather clueless about color management and RGB working spaces. So Adobe RGB (1998) would be as risky and sRGB (or better, ColorMatch RGB) would be something I'd send to such clueless people.

Adobe RGB (1998), sRGB, ColorMatch RGB and ProPhoto RGB, among others, are just RGB working space, editing and archive spaces. They cannot be directly output to print, they are source color spaces for the final destination (output to print) color space. What's risky is dealing with any RGB or CMYK color space with people who don't understand how to treat them.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 02, 2023 Dec 02, 2023

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Fast forward to 2023.  Business card printers for example all seem to want a photo file uploaded in CMYK which is a problem for me to get the conversion to look right in PS CC.  Check Vista print who is possibly the largest business card service in the USA.  They want my file in CMYK color.  As a test, I sent them an aRGB file and the color on the cards was not good at all.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 02, 2023 Dec 02, 2023

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Lightroom Classic does not export CMYK files, period. You'll need to do that in Photoshop, and if you need help with that, I suggest asking in the Photoshop forum, not the Lightroom Classic forum.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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