Problem with colors when exporting CMYK TIFF photos

[Infantilniq]

So I converted a photo in Photoshop from RGB to CMYK because I have to print it and when I see the image in Photoshop the colors, contrast, saturation etc. looks the same as the original Jpeg (just a few minor tweaks), but when i export it as a Tiff file it looks completely desaturated, no contrast, no whites, no darks etc.. Then i tried opening the Tiff file in Photoshop and Illustrator and it looks fine. What am I missing here, which of these is gonna be the printed version? What should I do?

[davescm]

"What am I missing here"

A couple of  things.

First, Photoshop and Illustrator are colour managed, so the colours in the document are adjusted when sent to the screen to take into account the document colour profile and the monitor colour profile. That way colours are displayed correctly. Windows photo's is not colour managed and displays incorrectly.

Second - Why are you converting to CMYK to print?  Unless you are using a printing press and have the specific version of CMYK to convert to then you are introducing issues. There is no generic CMYK. Desktop inkjet print drivers expect an RGB file and most can print with a much wider gamut than CMYK as they use additional inks.

Dave