JPG CMYK Format ?? (printing related)

Factual Questions
1

I am attempting to have some postcards printed and I found a seemingly decent place to have this done online (www.bargainpostcards.com). My question concerns the required file formats. The images requirements are either JPEG - CMYK color format or TIFF CMYK color format (I don’t have software for the other two formats so they aren’t even an option). I am familiar with JPEG and TIFF but everything I have seen in my software seems to indicate the file will be saved in a RGB format.

My question is: Are the RGB and CMYK file formats the same or are they different? Also, if they are different what software might help me convert the RGB to CMYK? Any advice on free/shareware that could be used is especially preferred.

FTR I have the following (mostly old) software at my disposal if any of it can be used:
Kodak Imaging for Windows
Canon ColorDesk Ver 1.52
IPhotoPlus Version 1.2
IPhotoPlus Version 4.0
Micrografx Picture Publisher Version 6.0
Microsoft Image Composer Version 1.5
Microsoft Photo Editor Version 3.01
Broderbund Print Shop Premier Edition Version 5.0
Indigo Photo Plus Version 1.0

I’ve searched the SDMB and didn’t find the answer so I’m hoping someone can help. Any advice is appreciated.

2

I’ve never heard of a JPG in CMYK format but you can convert to TIFF CMYK with PaintShop Pro. It’s $99 but you can download it (warning, huge) and use it for 30 days unrestricted to evaluate. You can download it at http://www.jasc.com/ or if you need send me the file and I’ll convert for you.

RGB is red, green blue. The additive primaries that work with things like monitors that create light. CMY is cyan, magenta and yellow, the subtractive primaries used in dyes to subtract reflected light from white paper. In theory you could produce black but in reality dies produce a muddy brown so black id added. I don’t know why black is represented by Y. In process printing they will print three separate passes with cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks to produce a full color image. This is called a color separation.

3

I’m sure you meant K. And it is so, because blue already claims B in RGB.

4

Off topic, but I think that vistaprint.com can beat bargainpostcard’s price.

I get my dirt cheap (virtually free) business cards from them and the quality (print job and paper stock) is quite good. You should check them out if you want to save some bux.

5

did I say K? I must be getting punchy.

Stuyguy has a good point. Vistaprint does good work cheaply and can take standard format bitmaps

6

Unless you need some decent quantity, it’s much better to find a friend (or a local services outlet) who has a high quality inkjet printer. Grab yourself some of those special photo papers, and print your images on them.

7

I’m 99% certain that the jpeg format supports both colour formats (CMYK / RGB) as well as different resolutions (72 dpi being your standard for screen, but you can make a jpeg any resolution and it won’t dumb it down to 72 when you save it.)

I say 99% sure because my computer with Photoshop is out for repair at the moment so I can’t doube-check, but I seem to remember doing this fairly recently.

8

Indeed you can save JPEGs iun both RGB and CMYK format. I do it all the time.

9

Vistaprint seems way better in terms of price and ease of use. Thanks for the suggestion.

10

I second that…I’ve been looking for a place to get good quality Christmas Cards done. Opengrave, will you be so kind as to drop me a line and let me know how yours come out?

11

If I can remember I will. These are actually being sent to a third party so I may not see a finished product for several months.

12

What I suggest is making the file into a RGB Jpeg with the dimensions of 4 x 6 " at 300dpi and take it to a photofinishing place and have it processed as a ‘digital photo’. This is so cheap and you can print as few as you want. The quality of the printing is better because it will be seamless (no halftone dots).

There are two little disadvantages - the paper is a bit thinner and for the back you will either have to use a thin permanent felt or a postcard-sized lable (because it is shiny and may have the file name printed on).

So the stamp doesn’t fall off, I recommend a sticker-type stamp, or taking scissors and lightly scuffing the area you wil l put the stamp.

If you’re leary about the idea, I really recommend having 2 postcards printed - one in glossy and one in matte finish (to see which, if either, you like). It should cost you around a dollar.

Jpegs can be CMYK but when they’re saved for the web (at least in Photoshop) they’re converted to RGB.

Someone suggested Paint Shop. Paint shop is an awesome program, but you can’t save anything in CMYK.

Tiffs can be CMYK but again you need a program that will let you.

13

I always get dpi and ppi (dots per inch and pixels per inch) mixed up. As far as I can see, they are exactly equivalent, though one refers to screen res, and one to printing res.

But some guy who is an expert at this stuf once told me that there is a very clear difference. Well, beats me if I can figure it all out.

14

I’ve looked it up, and it seems dpi and ppi aren’t the same thing, but they are equal.
It kind of confuses me, but I think basically if you have a 300 ppi image, it’s best to print it at 300 dpi.
I think of it like drink mix. If you put too much in, it’s needlessly concentrated, and if you don’t put enough in, it’s not good either.
[http://www.color-printing.com/inkjet-dpi-vs-ppi.html](http://www.color-printing.com/inkjet-dpi-vs-ppi.html says:)