Expert: Glen Demers - 9/13/2008

Question
I've worked in Photoshop for a number of years.  I just lost it completely on a ruined hard drive.  Painful...  I've just ordered Photoshop 7.  But it won't arrive to me for 7-10 days and I need to get a time sensitive print job out before then in CMYK.  I have Photoshop Elements on a different computer, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the CMYK mode I need. Only RGB.  Again I did most of my work  -up until a few days ago- in Big Boy Photoshop. In 7-10 days this RGB to CMYK won't be a problem but is there anything I can temporarily use, software, freeware, low-cost-ware, online converter, a miracle, a leprechan, ANYTHING so I can create my work using Elements, convert to CMYK and get it into a pdf?  I know enough to be at least careful with color selection. Apreciate any conversion advice or ideas you may have and thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi JT,

If you are making you pdf's with Acrobat Distiller you can change the settings in the joboptions file under the color tab to convert everything to CMYK.
There is an open source program called the Gimp that is free, available for most systems and will convert RGB to CMYK, but it is big, it's actually an open source replacement for Photoshop. There may be smaller programs/converters out there but I'm not familiar with them.
Also, in order to be certified PDF X1-a, a PDF has to be in CMYK color mode, you may try hunting down a website that certifies/converts pdf's to pdf x1-a.
Good luck,

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

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