: How to convert a RGB poster to CMYK with Pantone Colours as reference? (Result must be EXACTLY like RGB) My file is in RGB, but I need to print it with CMYK. I have tried several printers

@Jamie315

Assuming you're working within a common RGB color space (sRGB and AdobeRGB being the most common), any good print shop will start by converting from that RGB space to their own, custom-built CMYK profile specific to their print process.

You should be able to provide them the digital file and a hard-copy showing the results you're looking for, and they should be able to deliver something extremely close to that, barring certain factors that can limit color output, such as paper color and inkset.

Most RGB color spaces have some colors that exceed the gamut of any CMYK printer, so best-guess attempts are made by the converting software to approximate the out-of-gamut colors' appearance.

For the most control, you'll want to do that RGB-to-CMYK conversion yourself, which will require you getting the custom CMYK profile from your print shop. Then you can manipulate the converted image to your heart's desire before submitting for print.

If you find that too many of your RGB file's colors are out of the CMYK gamut, and don't like the initial conversion results, you may want to give a little-known RGB color space a try. It's called PhotoGamutRGB. It's gamut contains only colors that can be reproduced on printers of all kinds. So it's a better starting-point for RGB-to-CMYK for print, IMO.

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@Goswami567

Sorry, Jes.

Designers that work with terrible printers will tell you it can't be done. And they'll tell you about a million arbitrary rules of all manner of nonsense. None of it matters. It's old thinking, at it's best. Which is worse than anything you'll ever think.

Think of a printer like a race driver thinks of his chief engineer. You don't need to understand how print technology works or how cars suspension technologies and tunings impact balance. But you do need a printer that understands your goals and feedback to get the performance you desire.

It can be done. You can find another pinter that gets what you're up to. Even when your use of RGB strays far outside the realms of CMYK a truly great printer will find ways of getting near your vision.

And clearly you had a printer who understood your images and intentions and were within the capacity of your printer's abilities. Those guys are worth their weight in gold.

This is extremely annoying, but best described thus:

The screen is mightier than the printed page. Mainly because the imaginations of printers and the rules they've come up with for mass production are restrictive. Terribly so, mostly. But some printers realise this and work to find what a designer wants to do, or even make the previously impossible into reality. These guys will even go so far as suggesting ways you can push their technological capabilities and that of their tools and trade, for the joy of doing it. They want an experimental and exploratory designer as much as you want a great printer.

I suggest you're best served by going to every printer in your access/range with a demonstration of the prior effort (physical and digital file) and start trying to find the next printer that's going to be your partner.

This will be the most valuable experience you'll ever have in printed design because you'll eventually find the one that is worth working with, and realise just how rare and wonderful he is. So you'll treat him with the respect he deserves and shower him in gifts each time he secures another contract for you with great output, with that magical vibrancy nobody else can do.

Cause here's the real key to this magical symbiotic relationship that can exist between an experimental and exploratory designer and a crafty, technically brilliant and caring printer... you can make stuff that nobody else can in your area. He's the only one of him, and you're likely the only one of you. And that point of difference in quality and vibrancy, punch and impact in your printed designs will make you stand out like nothing else can.

Good luck, Jes.

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@Speyer780

You cannot print RGB. Ink is CYMK.

What may have happened is that your previous printer printed your logo as spot colors rather than converting the RGB to CMYK. So instead of using four plates to combine into process colors, they used pre-mixed ink matched to your PANTONE colors and printed however many plates/colors you had. This is just a guess.

The solution is to stop designing print jobs in RGB, because you (and the client) will always be disappointed. Design in the space which your final product will be in so everyone's expectations are managed.

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