Offset printing process CMYK

[kaedorg]

Hi guys

Until now i saved all my renders in tiff and for some of them, i printed them from the tiff file (i mean in RGB photo process) and result was excellent.

But on this new project (15 bookmarks), it will be an offset printing process in CMYK.
The first try with the tiff file was awful. Colors were far away from what they should be.
So I need to convert my RGB tiff file to CMYK file, and here any suggestion are welcome as it is a first time for me.

I found this site : http://www.rgb2cmyk.org/ .As my files are about 5MB each i can use it.
I made a try, i get a result but when i open it with Photoshop elements 10, it ask to convert in a RGB.
I just can open it with the Windows Photo Viewer; result is fine but i don't get any confirmation, the file is in CMYK.

Any help is welcome

David

[pokoy]

Photoshop Elements doesn't support CMYK, that's why it wants to convert to RGB when you try to opena CMYK file.
Usually, converting to CMYK is quite straight forward and easily done with Photoshop (full version). The only thing you need to setup is what target profile you want to use. Important: do NOT use any SWOP profile, it's intended for newspaper printing and colors and levels will be quite off when printed on normal paper. If you're converting through the site you linked to, make sure to use 'ISO Coated v2 300% ECI' instead.

There are some alternatives to Photoshop that support CMYK but if you don't want to dive into it, send me the files, I can convert them for you, no problem. Only thing is, I'll not be able to do it in the next 2 or 3 weeks (off for xmas).

Hope this helps!

[kaedorg]

Thanks a lot for your answer. It will  help.
I gonna try to use the site with your advice.

The files will be sent in January. We all are thinking about Xmas now.
I'll get back to you if I have more questions about that

Thanks again

David

[inkydigit]

Hi David,
The printer might help you converting the rgb files into cmyk.... there will be gamut issues, as the colour spaces do not match... some help may be found here too:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.shtml
cheers
Jason

[kaedorg]

Thanks for your help Jason