Color questions / Saving EPS files for print - Color format for home inkjet vs. professional printer

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
June 2, 2021
3 replies
4112 views

Hi, I have a logo (non profit organization) in both CMYK and RGB .eps files. It has four colors (banana, jade, pea greens & olive green) which look terrific on the web and great on laster, but get washed out in the cmyk conversion to .pdf. The .png format color becomes almost neon on a home inkjet printer, and that's worse.

I went to a print shop who converted our .rgb version of the .eps file to a pdf. It was more vibrant and true to the web colors than the CMYK, But, the printer said the inkjet uses RGB. I need the logo to work on home inkjet printers and from what I understand, they mostly use CMYK. I do not have a home printer.

I am trying to give the members who design our invites and flyers something simple to understand and print at home. I think I should label the logo files something like "Home/Inkjet" and the other "Professional/Laser".

Should I use the .rgb pdf for inkjet? Or will the inkjet printers have to convert them to cmyk anyway and produce different, possibly glaring results? Should I stick with the washed out cmyk .pdf because the inkjets won't have to do the conversion and I'll get more stable results?

Lots of questions here, and I really appreciate your time if you can help enlighten me.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Bob_Hallam

Legend

Stick With RGB. Choose an RGB color space profile that is the appropriate size so as to encompass all of the colors you would like to have in your print. sRGB is a small color space profile, smaller than most printers' CMYK space. Adobe RGB is a good alternative, and most designers and photographers use this as an exchange space. Make sure you embed the profile in the image when saving so the image can be displayed and color managed properly. Use ProPhoto RGB if you're strictly printing to fine Art inkjet prints. Many inkjet printers using good media can hit most of ProPhoto in their prints.

ICC programmer and developer, Photographer, artist and color management expert, Print standards and process expert.

Derek Cross

Community Expert

In which application was the logo originally created?

EPS is considered an obsolete format, it might be worth recreating it if you don't have the original artwork for the logo.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Design in RGB --only-- Do not use CMYK unless you are designing for professional print on a specific, known, single model, printer or press - and often not even then.

Most printers accept only RGB and the printer driver converts to the printer's actual inks - which are sometimes CMYK but often not.
You can, and maybe should, be aware if the typical CMYK colour limitations which make neon bright impossible on many printers. But all your attempts to use CMYK will certainly make things worse.

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