CMYK export of images possible? Design?

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2020-12-19 20:06:05

Hi. I'm about to upgrade to OS Catalina or Big Sur, and I need to get rid of my Photoshop 32 bit.(It's CS4 so I've had it for quite some time, and I do use it to build small ads occasionally.

I do a lot of work formatting books for authors who self publish. Simply, I need to know the answer to this question: Can images be saved in CMYK vs RGB at export? That's it. That's my question.

All the self publishing platforms require 300dpi images and saved for CMYK. Yes or no? I appreciate any quick response ... I was going to buy today and then couldn't get an answer to this.

And the design question: Can I build ads or biz cards for example with this? And then flattened and saved as pdfs. The app looks sensational and I'm sure will meet all photo image editing needs. Just these two questions. Save as CMYK. Build flyers, etc like Photoshop (I never learned Illustrator because I'm not a graphic designer, I just play one occasionally ... :-)
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2020-12-19 20:20:44

Have you read in the Pixelmator Help Page about color management. This might help to answer your questions. https://help.pixelmator.com/pixelmator-pro/2.0/#725
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2020-12-19 21:45:09

Thanks. Don't think that helps. I did download the trial and I like it a lot. I did a test and simply tweaked the dpi under tools and then exported the photo choosing "generic CMYK" and it appears that the photo saved at 300dpi (with "no resampling" set) and flattened. I will play a little more, but I think it will work just fine. A very robust program. Wish I had had it in my 40s. and when I needed something like this ... perhaps I'll get another freelance gig for a website and be able to use some of the tricks and tips.
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2020-12-20 19:14:25

Pixelmator does not have support for CMYK. All you can do is to use CMYK color profile for soft proofing, but I don't suppose this is what you are looking for
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2020-12-20 21:05:26

From what I figured out, though, that I was able to save the jpg as an export, and I chose to export with Generic CMYK and I think that is fine. I don't need to edit the CMYK. As far as I understand, the Jpgs just have to be saved as CMYK. In any event, that's what I'm going to try for and see if I can get a humanoid to answer a question from LULU or Ingramspark. Thanks for your input.
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2020-12-22 10:35:12

Ah, I just replied to your other comment in the other thread, but I see you got your answer here. :smile:

While Pixelmator Pro doesn't let you directly set colors using the CMYK color model, it does have soft proofing, which means you can view what an image will look like when converted to a specific CMYK color profile and it also lets you convert an image to CMYK when exporting, which means the colors will be encoded using the CMYK color model and your chosen CMYK color space. The only drawback of this workflow is that you cannot directly specify amounts of each CMYK ink, which might be necessary for some advanced workflows.
by leonfabr 2020-12-20 17:14:25 Pixelmator does not have support for CMYK.
This isn't really true. Generally speaking, the main problem with working on CMYK designs in RGB color spaces is that colors will shift when converted from RGB to CMYK. But with soft proofing, you will already be limited to the colors available in CMYK, so that shouldn't be an issue. And, as you can convert to the same CMYK color profile when exporting, the printers won't have to do any conversion themselves, so that's another potential problem alleviated. Of course, if you've tried this workflow and have come across issues, do let us know and we'll see if there's anything we can improve.
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2020-12-29 17:25:23

by Andrius 2020-12-22 08:35:12 This isn't really true.
How is that not true?

Does pixelmator keep image pixels in CMYK?
Does it process pixels in CMYK color model? For example, blending is vastly different when done in CMYK compared to RGB blending.
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2021-01-04 17:24:08

by leonfabr 2020-12-29 15:25:23
How is that not true?

Does pixelmator keep image pixels in CMYK?
Does it process pixels in CMYK color model? For example, blending is vastly different when done in CMYK compared to RGB blending.
Well, I said it isn't really true that Pixelmator Pro doesn't have CMYK support – not that it's outright false. I should've said "that isn't entirely true", which reflects what I meant more accurately. And what I meant is, for some people, the workflow Pixelmator Pro does support is enough. Of course, for truly pro print workflows, it doesn't have CMYK support. For creating, say, a poster design to send to your local print shop, you will be able to see which colors fall within the CMYK gamut (thanks to soft proofing) and send a file with CMYK colors. That's why, in my opinion, saying outright that Pixelmator Pro doesn't have any form of CMYK support isn't really true. It's also not true that Pixelmator Pro has full CMYK support, but again, there's nuance to this.