[Gimp-developer] CMYK editing (Was: GIMP PDF export plugin)

[Andrew A. Gill]

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009, Martin Nordholts wrote:
>
> I am by no means a photography professional and my point of view comes
> mostly from what other people have said regarding CMYK support; I don't
> have any direct sources to give.
>
> Could you perhaps clarify/give references to your claim that high-end
> photo editing apps are pushing for an RGB only work-flow? If you are
> going to print an image, CMYK _will_ play a role in your work-flow.

I do work in the printing industry, and I can tell you that 
output is still CMYK, and will remain CMYK for at least the next 
few years.  Well, some of it is 6-color Hexachrome.

And the newest technology is digital presses like the HP Indigo, 
which are also 6-color or more.  The cheap ones cost upwards of 
$160,000, not counting the product maintenance contract.  No one 
is going to turn around and buy another press that uses a 
completely different workflow after dropping that much money on a 
brand new press just 4 years ago.

I have seen no evidence that anyone is moving from a CMYK or 
6-color workflow to an all-RGB workflow.  I do know that some 
desktop printers use RGB color inputs, but those are desktop 
printers, not professional presses.

The workflow may be different for photo editing than for some of 
the documents that I work on (most are spot jobs, but some 
involve image manipulation), especially with things like photo 
kiosks, but professional-quality press output will remain CMYK 
for quite some time.

I recognize that CMYK editing is a difficult thing, and I'd 
encourage you to take the time to do it right, but I'd also 
encourage you to do it.  It may take some work to convert current 
Adobe users to GIMP, but the way GIMP works now, you ensure that 
they can't even consider it.

Full disclosure: I use Adobe products at work, but GIMP at home. 
I much prefer the UI of GIMP to that of Photoshop, and it works 
just fine for the amateur work that I enjoy as a hobby at home. 
In fact, GIMP can do all the professional things that I need it 
to at work--all except CMYK and spot.  I don't even really use 
16-bit much, and I can work around PMS colors.

If GIMP had CMYK support, I could take my work home.

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