Expert: Candice Anderson - 7/2/2006

Question
Hi Candice,

Thanks for the info. One more thing though. Is adding a spot color to an image that is CMYK 88,76,0,0 to get it to look like the RGB 0,0,255 a trial and error process? What color would I add to achieve my "bright" blue?

-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
Hi Candice,

Hope you can help with my question.  I'm relatively new to Photoshop.  I design book covers that are printed and thus must be in CMYK. However, often I receive RBG images with bright colors that I really cannot come close to duplicating in CMYK. For example, I recently received an image that had a background blue, with an RGB value of 0,0,255.  When I covert to CMYK, it converts to 88,76,0,0, which is far from the RGB color.  How can I achieve this color in CMYK?  Do I have to add a spot color?  If so, which one and how do I do that?  Do most printers support spot colors?

Any info you can provide me will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Mike

Answer -
When I covert to CMYK, it converts to 88,76,0,0, which is far from the RGB color.  How can I achieve this color in CMYK? - You really can't, the reason why it looks differnt is because CMYK, and therefore your printer, won't support that color.   

Do I have to add a spot color? Yes, on your color palette, you have a triangle on the right side.  Hit that and select load colors. choose the pantone group that you need and grab from those colors.  

Do most printers support spot colors? Yes.  what they can do is print the pantone in a cmyk, or a process pantone.  They can also print your pantone color if you ask them to.

Candice ;)

Answer
hey there,

Yep, its trial and error with your color.  Ususally, if its printer ok, you will get the right color when you convert, or at least close.  Because YOUR COLOR IS NOT PRINT WORTHY (and I say this in caps not to be mean, but to warn you might not get the print results you desire), you aren't getting a close replacement.  

Try this combo: 100c 0m 0y 0k.  Thats pretty colose to what you were looking at.  Definatly have a proof done to see what the printer will do.

Candice :)