How to tell if an image is CMYK?

Question

Level 1

10 points

How to tell if an image is CMYK?

Hi everyone,

I'm new to color schemes / printing, and I'm working with converting a file from RGB to CMYK and I have a few questions.

Before I start, you should know I'm just working with Pages '08, and I don't have Acrobat Professional, Photoshop, Illustrator, or anything like that.

First, how do I tell if a file is actually CMYK or not?

Second, is it only image files that can be CMYK - or can PDFs be CMYK as well? If PDFs can be CMYK, again, how do I tell if the file is actually in this format?

Thanks.

Macbook Pro 2.0 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Jan 9, 2008 6:45 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 9, 2008 7:15 AM in response to erlloyd

I think you will find that PDFs are always CMYK.

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Answer 2

Jan 9, 2008 6:55 AM in response to erlloyd

Hi,

If you need to know if an image is CMYK you can just so a simple Get Info on it (Apple + I) then click on More Info. This should tell you the colourspace of the image.

If you are worried about sending a Pages PDF to print then the best thing to do is speak to your repro company. I recently sent a Pages created PDF to a repro house for printing. It wasn't idea (as you can't set things like bleed and crop marks, which a printer may ask for) but in my case it printed fine.

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Answer 3

Jan 9, 2008 7:11 AM in response to erlloyd

Proper CMYK conversion is a fairly complex process and you would be better off just letting the printer do it if you aren't sure of what you're doing or don't have the tools to do it right. They may charge you for the conversion, but the end result will be much superior. (To do it well you need to have info about the paper they will use, the ink emulsion, etc. It's quite different from, say, converting between sRGB and Adobe RGB.)

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Answer 4

Jan 9, 2008 8:53 AM in response to erlloyd

Well, it wouldn't make me feel all warm and happy, since I would bet that they also aren't going to be bothered to see how your conversion actually looks once set up if you've done it yourself. I'd for sure want to see a proof print before I approved the whole job, if it's important, regardless of whether you or they do the conversion, given this.

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Answer 5

erlloyd Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 9, 2008 7:13 AM in response to James@Hakoona

Thanks for the help. I do see the color space info when I'm looking at an image - but do you know of any way for me to tell if I'm looking at a PDF? There isn't a 'color space' option for PDFs.

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Answer 6

erlloyd Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 9, 2008 7:14 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

The printer I'm planning on using says that if you don't have your file already in CMYK they just do a batch conversion, which doesn't always turn out great. Do you think that is acceptable or not?

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Answer 7

efarish

Level 1

15 points

Feb 9, 2008 10:51 PM in response to James@Hakoona

Not necessarily,

I just had to have my pdf converted recently.

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