Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

Printing in RGB and CMYK

RGB and CMYK are the two modes commonly used to edit color images. Some print-

ers, especially inexpensive inkjet printers, work better if your image is edited and

printed in RGB mode. These printers’ built-in automatic RGB-to-CMYK conversion

software produces better looking prints than you will get if you edit in CMYK mode.

Other printers produce better quality output from CMYK mode images. If your

printer makes better prints in one particular mode, always use that mode.

When you edit an image in RGB mode without color management, you can use

Gamut Warning to locate and adjust colors that the printer cannot reproduce.

Unfortunately Photoshop Elements does not have this feature. If you use Photoshop,

follow these steps:

1. Open an image in Photoshop. Select an image with a rich range of colors
   (see Figure 20.13).


2. Before you can check your image for gamut problems, ensure that you have
   the correct printer profile installed. To see whether the profile for your printer
   is installed, choose Edit, Color Settings, Working Spaces, CMYK in Photoshop.
   Without the correct profile, Gamut Warning is not accurate.


3. Edit the image as you normally would, and then prior to printing choose
   View, Gamut Warning. When the Gamut Warning is turned on, any colors
   that your printer cannot properly reproduce will be concealed behind a mask
   of flat color (see Figure 20.14). The underlying colors are not altered—they
   are simply hidden from view. The hidden colors are those that cannot be
   accurately reproduced by CMYK printing devices such as your inkjet printer
   (your printer actually prints in CMYK, not RGB).

302 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TODIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

FIGURE 20.12

The resulting

adjusted image.