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nickw29628051
nickw29628051
Known Participant
October 7, 2022
Question

File size has become massive after converting to CMYK, even after converting back to RGB?

  • October 7, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 945 views

I was just toying around with art I illutrated converting to it CMYK and after saving, the file size has become massive and now even converting back to RGB the file is huge. This is problem because I need to send this file to my artist colloborator.

 

How can I reduce the file size back down again?

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
NB, colourmanagementCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 8, 2022

Whatever you do, never convert to CMYK then back to RGB, colour will be lost and that may include detail in saturated areas. 

 

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2022

    Did you have "use dither" turned on in your colour settings or convert to profile settings when converting from RGB to CMYK?

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      October 7, 2022

      What are the comparative sizes? Use your backup of the RGB file to give us both figures.

        nickw29628051
        nickw29628051Author
        Known Participant
        October 7, 2022

        Original is 70mb the converted and then converted back to CMYK is 180mb!

         

        But I've just found a work around by converting it to Grayscale and then to RGB to comes back to its original file size but I could only do this because my art luckily is black and white. I will not be touching the color space again!

        PECourtejoie
        Community Expert
        PECourtejoieCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 7, 2022

        Hey!

        Photoshop has CYMK abilities as it was heavily used in conjunction with Quark Xpress in the Desktop Publishing era.

        With the advent of InDesign that has the same color engine, and can ingest RGB files and convert at export time, (if needed, you can then keep a PDF version in RGB for better color rendition), converting to CYMK is way less necessary.

        The recommended workflow is to keep the file in RGB, and preview it in CYMK using Proof Colors (CTRL+Y) but to do it with the same profile, you do need to load it in View>Proof Setup>Custom.

        This way, you can still use every filters, keep a sane filesize, and see how it would look.

        Another great use of Proof color is to use a Dot grain of 15 or 20% to quickly see the exact values of your drawing, instead of the false conversion one gets with CTRL+U (see: https://twitter.com/bobjinx/status/1156246100866740226?lang=en-GB )

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