- Choose the CMYK Color command. Choose Image→
Mode→CMYK Color. When Photoshop asks you whether you
want to merge the image, as in Figure 12-13, click the Merge
button to reduce the image to a single layer. Blend modes are
calculated differently in CMYK than in RGB, so retaining lay-
ers can result in severe color shifts. Very likely you’ll see a sec-
ond alert, this time reminding you that you have the option to
choose a different profile. Yes, we are aware of that. Turn on
the Don’t Show Again check box and click OK. - Flatten the image. Flattening isn’t always the ideal solution,
but there’s no harm in this case, so we might as well. Choose
Layer Flatten Image or press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F (�-Option-
Shift-F on the Mac). - Save the image under a new name. You should never save over
your original layered image, and you should never ever save a
CMYK image over the original RGB. CMYK is a more limited
color space than RGB, less suited to general image editing. So
choose File→Save As and do the following:- In the Save As dialog box, choose TIFF from the Format
pop-up menu. TIFF is a wonderful format to use when
handing off CMYK files because it enjoys wide support
and prints without incident. Name the image “Joy of Color
CMYK.tif.” - Turn on ICC Profile: Prints-R-Us profile (or Embed Color
Profile: Prints-R-Us profile on the Mac). - Click the Save button.
- Inside the TIFF Options dialog box, turn on LZW under
Image Compression. Every once in a while, a print house
will balk at this setting. They can always open the file and
resave it with this option off. Select the platform that your
print house will be using from the Byte Order options. - Click the OK button to save the file.
- In the Save As dialog box, choose TIFF from the Format
- Hand off the TIFF file to your commercial print house. The
only way to judge the success of the profile supplied to you by
the print house is to put it to use. When you get the printed
output back, you can decide whether changes are in order or
not. For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll imagine that the
overly light Figure 12-14 on the facing page represents the final
output provided to us by Prints-R-Us.
Figure 12-13.
434 Lesson 12: Print and Web Output