Photoshop CC - Proof Colors not working

[isaack36006653]

I am designing album art for a friend. I created the art in photoshop using a RGB colour space, and then saved as a JPEG (using a RGB colour space).

I then placed the artwork onto the templates (in photoshop) provided by the company who will be printing the work. They specified the template documents (PDF) should be opened in photoshop using the CMYK colour space.

I then placed the RGB JPEGS of the artwork onto the templates in the CYMK PDF document in photoshop. Whilst in Photoshop the colours of the artwork don't seem to shift in colour at all even though the art has been placed into a document with CYMK file when they are originally RGB.

I then save the document as a Photoshop PDF and view them out of photoshop and the colours have shifted and appear duller and flatter.

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After researching into colour spaces I now understand that moving from RGB to CMYK will result in colour shift, but my real question is why is this shift only showing after I save out of photoshop?

I have turned on 'Proof Colors', and my colour settings are as follows:

I really need to solve this because without being able to see what the final outcome in CYMK will look like in photoshop I have no way of making the necessary adjustments to try and match it to the RGB version.

[D Fosse]

A placed smart object will display in the parent document's color space. Any gamut clipping will be visible at that point.

I suspect this is something else. You say "color shift", but you don't get a general color shift in a conversion from an RGB color space to a CMYK color space. What you get, is gamut clipping in some highly saturated areas that are contained in the RGB space, but out of gamut in the CMYK space. Usually this affects deep blues the most. All in-gamut colors should be unchanged.

Have you checked the PDF output settings? They are separate from Photoshop's color settings. Are you sure you have the right CMYK profile throughout?

This kind of work should normally be done in InDesign. But if you have to do it in Photoshop, I'd convert copies of your RGB files to the required CMYK profile and place those. You can preview the conversion by proofing to the CMYK profile in Photoshop.

If you're viewing the finished PDF in anything other than Acrobat, whatever app you're using may not have full CMYK support.

If you end up with a general color shift it could also be a broken/defective monitor profile.

Can you show a side-by-side screenshot?

[isaack36006653]

I'm really sorry, colour shift was the wrong term. The colours dont "shift" but rather just become flatter and duller, especially the blues.

Could you expand on the smart object point you made, because the real problem is the change doesn't show in photoshop but only shows once I save the file as CYMK and view it outside of photoshop, even if the colour space in CYMK inside photoshop.

Here's a comparison of the image saved as SRGB vs CYMK. The change is subtle but the CYMK version (second image) looks flatter. It almost looks like a very low opacity grey layer has been applied to it, especially the buildings.

[D Fosse]

This looks normal.

The deep blues are out of CMYK gamut.

The blacks usually lift a bit in CMYK because of what is known as Total Area Coverage - the maximum ink limit. TAC is a very important limit in CMYK, and can't be exceeded. If the paper receives too much ink, you get smearing and drying problems. TAC is built into all CMYK profiles.