[Scribus] CMYK image processing

[Tino Schwarze]

Hi Craig,

On Tue, Mar 21, 2006 at 05:45:37PM +0800, Craig Ringer wrote:

> > > Ignorance is relative. It's true that some GIMP folks haven't recognised
> > > the need for CMYK etc, but others certainly do, and I think
> > > understanding is growing (of course, CMYK is becoming less important at
> > > the same time due to better colour management and so on - they make the
> > > IMO valid point that really CMYK should be the RIPs problem).
> > 
> > The short answer is:
> > You need CMYK, if your print shop wants it, or if somebody sends it to you.
> 
> Well, you don't need CMYK support in your raster graphics app if your
> print shop wants a CMYK PDF. Scribus can - and does - convert RGB
> graphics to CMYK according to the embedded or configured input and
> output profiles. This is done at PDF export time, and doesn't need any
> CMYK support in a graphics app.
> 
> If someone sends you CMYK artwork, you should be able to just include
> it. Again, little need to involve the GIMP - especially since Scribus
> can do any image cropping, rotation, downsampling, and so on that is
> required.
> 
> You need CMYK support in your graphics app if:
> 	- You're working without colour management (bad idea!) and want
> 	  to try to manually adjust the input images.

- You are an artist or are working with artists which just happen to
  THINK in CMYK.
- You've got a photo which looks nice on screen but a bit too yellow
  when printed - you'll just remove some yellow after conversion to CMYK.
- You're using printed color reference charts to get colors right. They
  are always in CMYK since that's what will be used to print.

> After speaking with Marti Maria at LGM, I'm actually now going to be
> going to the printers I use at the POST Newspapers and talking to them
> about using us as a trial customer for a colour managed workflow. We
> currently use the old-style CMYK preconversion (based on Photoshop
> profiles, with artwork output untouched through Quark) approach, but are
> upgrading to more modern workstations that'll do colour management
> sensibly. My point is that I'm not just fluffing randomly - I intend to
> act on my own words here and get rid of manual CMYK image management at
> my employer.

Having a fully color-managed workflow is a nice goal. But in practice, there
are a lot of people who will not put a lot of effort into this since
it's okay for them to work in CMYK and they are used to it. IMO it's a
matter of complexity.

Bye, Tino.