Expert: Glen Demers - 12/6/2008

Question
hi there... im a newbie illustrator and one problem ive been facing is whenever i save my digital paintings (PSDs) as JPEG images i always end up with an image much darker than the original as it appears in photoshop. another question is that when painting for print media is it better to paint in CMYK or first in RGB and THEN convert to CMYK..

Hope to get sm answers soon... thanks!!

Answer
Hi Raunak,

To answer the second part of your question, I would work in RGB mode, you have a wider color gamut to work with and all your filters and effects are available. Convert to CMYK only when you are going to print.

The color shifts are caused by Photoshop profiles so we have to eliminate them so you are always looking at the image unaltered. In Photoshop with no image open do the following:
1. go to Edit>Color Settings and select 'monitor color' for the settings, you may also uncheck the 'ask when opening' option.
2. go to View>Proof Set Up>Monitor RGB
This will let you work in RGB without profiles and, hopefully, without color shifts.
3. Finally, open an image and go to 'Save For Web', over to the right after preset there is a little arrow, click on it to open the flyout menu and uncheck 'Convert to sRGB'. This will stop Photoshop from converting to this profile in your jpg's.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

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