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Converting to CMYK using Photoshop Elements

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I need to be able to convert to CMYK, but I'm not able to in my current version of Photoshop, which version do i need ?

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Bettina Di VirgilioCorrect answer

Participating Frequently

Elements doesn't support CMYK, that's the reason. Yes, you can use Photoshop CC.

Derek Cross

Community Expert

So there you have it OP.

Keep your images in RGB. It means they have the widest gamut (you loose around a third of the color when you convert to CMYK).

Remember the RGB color mode is correct (1) for websites (2) for your desk-top color printer, which will come with its own software to convert it to CMYK (or more depending on the model) (3) photo bureaux can use the mode and do their own color conversion, and (4) commercial litho printers will convert the images when they are included in publications etc they print to the space most suitable for the substrate.

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c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Remember the RGB color mode is correct (1) for websites

Allow me to nitpick here: It is not the RGB Color Mode as such, but the sRGB Color Space that should ascertain a fairly reliable result for web purposes.

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Derek Cross

Community Expert

True, but most browsers don't have color management.

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anneb66388887Author

Participant

My current version is 'Adobe Photoshop Elements 7', my pictures needs to be printed in a catalogue, and that requirers CMYK.

I can see that there is a version called 'Photoshop CC' - is this the one ?

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Bettina Di VirgilioCorrect answer

Participating Frequently

Elements doesn't support CMYK, that's the reason. Yes, you can use Photoshop CC.

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MichelBParis

Legend

When uploading book covers to Ingram Spark which prints their books using offset printing you HAVE to convert it to CMYK. This is not an option. They will not do it for you. They tell you that you must upload the coverdesign in CMYK and if you do not do that their system just rejects the file and you are stuck.

I have Pholoshop Elements 13 but cannot do it on that.

When uploading book covers to Ingram Spark which prints their books using offset printing you HAVE to convert it to CMYK. This is not an option. They will not do it for you. They tell you that you must upload the coverdesign in CMYK and if you do not do that their system just rejects the file and you are stuck.

I have Pholoshop Elements 13 but cannot do it on that.

By @Artist-Writer+

This old discusson gives excellent advice and excellent explanations from the best experts of color management. My advice won't be from a color and printing expert, it will be from an old PSE user who has been a customer of offset printing services with the advice of design studios. In a nutshell, those offset printing providers are the only ones to know exactly about their technical printing process, I mean inks and papers. At best, they can provide 'profiles' for users with the right softwares to give them CMYK files, generally in pdf format. Those users have to trust those profiles which have anyway the drawback of losing some 30% of the colours in the original RGB photos. As a customer, I would never have trusted a supplier refusing to do the conversion; it's their job, their responsability; and it's natural that this job is not for free.

In this conversation, you'll see that often, the designers provide not only the CMYK files, but also the original RGB files for controlling the test outputs.

You can see that even those experts have different choices, so it would be totally insane to provide CMYK conversion for the users of PSE.

For me, a supplier refusing to do the conversion for a reasonable price would be on my black list.

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Bettina Di Virgilio

Participating Frequently

If you've Photoshop Elements, you just need a full version of Photoshop.

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Derek Cross

Community Expert

Why do you want to convert your image to CMYK?

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R

Rogerr

Participant

it would be for sending the file to a professional printer. They require CMYK Files

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postrophe

Inspiring

Hi

Also : Supply pertinent information for quicker answers.

The more information you supply about your situation, the better equipped other community members will be to answer. Consider including the following in your question:

Adobe product and version number.
Operating system and version number.
What you were doing when the problem occurred.
Full screenshots of the problem.
Computer hardware, such as CPU, GPU, amount of RAM.
And more importantly, what's your end goal?

Thank you.

Pierre

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c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

I'm not able to in my current version of Photoshop

Will you let us know which version that is?

As far as I know any Photoshop (proper) version since version 2 could convert images to CMYK, so what about the image – what are its Color Mode and Bit Depth?

Could you please post a screenshot with the pertinent Panels (Layers, Channels, Options Bar, …) visible?

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