Guys, don't convert your images to CMYK if you will be printing them using an inkjet printer.

Yes, inkjet printers use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and BlacK inks.

But they are still internally RGB driven devices.

All inkjet printers come with a CD that contains the printer driver software.

You have to install the printer driver software in order to use the inkjet printer with your computer.

The printer driver software expects that the data it is receiving is in RGB prior to its transmitting it to your inkjet printer.

Converting your images to CMYK prior to inkjet printing isn't recommended :D

HTH.

Cheers!

Jo Avila

Thanks for sharing this useful info sir! Just curious, what devices need CYMK for printing?

Is this printer specific or to all printers? Isn't there a setting before printing in CMYK? Inquiring mind wants to know. Also, care to show how different one printed on RGB and another printed in CMYK?

Thanks.

Thanks! We have a few wide format printers, from 30 inches wide, up to 10.5 feet wide, and even I am still confused with this RGB or CMYK issue. The thing is, our RIP software for all of our wide format printers "require" that we send a CMYK file to our RIP before it gets printed. If we receive an RGB file from a customer and we forgot to convert it, the output results in "different" colors. So with this, I'm thinking that this RGB file recomendation should/could be followed for the smaller desktop inkjet printers with no RIP software, or those inkjet printers that are "just using" the "regular printer driver". I know this is still a bit confusing because some says the "regular printer driver" is also a form of a RIP software.
Color management for me is really difficult and a lot of times frustrating that I feel it's the holy grail of digital printing.
There's just too many parameters/factors involved:
1) calibrated monitor is a factor - what the customer see in their monitors when they tweak their files might be different from what we see in our own monitors, and would still be different when already "interpreted" by the printer
2) software used to tweak the file - why is it that the resulting file from an RGB image saved in photoshop, and then converted to CMYK would a some time be different to the resulting file if the origial RGB file si converted to RGB using Corel Photopaint or other softwares
3) the good profiling of the printer (or the printer itself) - this is done using a spectrometer and a tech with a "qualified eye", but sometimes, even if you use the same profile on another (but exactly the same)printer, you would still get differing results
4) different ink used by the printer - sometimes, the ink formulation differers even if it's from the same brand
5) print media used - tarpaulin banners have different degrees of "whiteness", stickers from different manufacturers, photopapers, etc. - you'll get different outputs when using different medias
6) time and temperature setting on heat transfer printing - and now, we are using this wide format sublimation printing to print on fabrics - so, we set the press to 60 to 90 seconds and temperatures of 180 to 200C, and sometimes, you'll get results that are different from what the customers are expecting

My point is that sometimes I just remind myself that there's so many factors affecting my printed output that i just shrug my shoulders and hope that the printed result would be acceptable. But sometimes too, when I'm on that confident mood, I'll just send that customer supplied file to the printer and it will come out perfect.