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Is it possible to get a real Red in CMYK?

7 replies [Last post]
Mon, 11/09/2009 - 12:54
larienna
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I am making a prototype and I still have color conversion problems. I know the differences between RGB and CMYK and I know that the color palette of each system is different which makes some colors not available in each other's palette.

I am trying to use a red texture I made, the problem is when it get passed in corel draw, which manage everything in CMYK, the red becomes dark orange. Here are the Texture previews:

Before
http://ariel.bdeb.qc.ca/~ericp/tempbgdf/Shot_RedLeather_Before.jpg

After
http://ariel.bdeb.qc.ca/~ericp/tempbgdf/Shot_RedLeather_after.jpg

Now I said to myself, maybe a real red is unprintable. So I check out other games I had in my closet and I found game with real red on it. For example, the old settlers of Catan Icon has some red it it and The point marking card for the red player is very red.

So I was wondering what can prevent me from getting access to a real red. Is it possible that I need a better color profile for converting the colors to the right colors.

I even tried in Corel draw, using the CMYK palette, to get a better red and I can't, I am at the limit.

Is it possible that it does not display correctly, but then it will get printed it will get better?

Any other ideas?

I'll probably print it like this and see what happens

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Mon, 11/09/2009 - 13:48
#1
guildofblades
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Regardless what color pallet

Regardless what color pallet you are working in, your monitor will display it in RGB. Unless you have a graphical monitor that specifically displays in CYMK. Even then, CYMK on a graphical monitor will not be exact as the illumination of the monitor itself can show certain colors slightly differently than they would print.

If the exact colors are that important to you, then your options at seeing a true sample rest with seeing a printed proof. what kind of proof you will want will depend on how you plan to have the thing printed. If its to be printed digitally, get go ahead and proof the RGB on a digital machine. To get a CYMK proof will be more difficult if just printing one (since most digital machines tend to default to printing RGB), but specialty large format printers can sometimes do digital output in CYMK.

Another thing to remember is most offset printers won't get your colors exact either. Very few press operators are that perfect. If you get less than a 2-5% variance, count yourself lucky.

Digital presses will, on average, have more variance than a well run offset press.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.gobretail.com
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com

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Tue, 11/10/2009 - 02:22
#2
MatthewF
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You certainly can get real

You certainly can get real red, it just appears that, as you say, your output profile is shifting it quite a bit. Pull some yellow out of of it (once it's in CMYK mode) or pump in some magenta and it should look fine.

Though, of course, as Ryan notes, what you see on your screen is only somewhat related to what you get off the press.

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Tue, 11/10/2009 - 18:32
#3
larienna
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I tried making a more red

I tried making a more red color and it does not works. It does not exist in the palette. Passed a certain point, all reds in an area of the palette are the same.

So it is really a screen display problem, and I won't be absolutely sure until I print it.

I don't really mind if it does not show correctly on the screen, as long as I get good results when printed.

Quote:
If its to be printed digitally, get go ahead and proof the RGB on a digital machine.

Are you saying that some printers print as RGB? I thought all printers printed as CMYK since it's ink color while RGB is used for light colors.

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Tue, 11/10/2009 - 18:42
#4
MatthewF
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Actually, though most

Actually, though most printers do indeed print in CMYK, they often have a larger color gamut (can print more colors) than a given dtp profile thinks it has. For many color printing projects these days the printer will actually request RGB files that they can convert themselves. It still means that you need to pay attention to what might be out of gamut in your image (convert to CMYK to see what radically changes, then undo and make alterations, or in a better program like Photoshop, use the gamut tools to see what's hot), but their printers (especially digital printers) can now often produce things impossible before.

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Thu, 11/12/2009 - 07:39
#5
larienna
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It worked

When the file was converted to PDF, it actually got better. Much more close to the original. And when I print it, it printed like in the PDF. So I could finally get a texture which was red enough.

So it's probably another bug of Corel Draw. I am starting to get tired of these bugs. I'll probably wait for inkscape to mature before making the switch.

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Thu, 11/12/2009 - 14:53
#6
truekid games
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what program do you use for

what program do you use for pdf conversion? mine is easy to use and aligns things the way i want it to, but dithers stuff and muddies my colors (sunny yellows get a greenish tinge, reds turn more orange, blues darken...).

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Thu, 11/12/2009 - 17:09
#7
larienna
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Well, Corel draw comes with a

Well, Corel draw comes with a PDF conversion tool. It's not perfect. For example, if there is too much pages or material in my file, the PDf file will crash before reaching the end. So I must print in PDF in multiple files and then merge them together.

Else, I was using Cute PDF but now I am using PDF Fill because I get access to additional features, like PDF merging, all in 1 software.

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