How to Create a File in CMYK Color
The acronym CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black, which are the four primary colors of the subtractive color model. In a subtractive color system, colors are added or mixed to get progressively darker colors. CMYK is used in printing to produce color images, even though it cannot reproduce all of the colors that the human eye can see. Files of artwork that will be printed in full color should be prepared in a software program that can produce CMYK files. Programs that work only with RGB or Indexed color files will not produce accurate colors in printed materials.
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Instructions
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Create your artwork from scratch in CMYK. Open Photoshop, or a similar application, create a new file and choose CMYK as the color mode. Set your size and image resolution and click "OK."
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Convert from RGB or other color modes to CMYK. In Photoshop, choose "Image" from the main menu, then select "Mode" and "CMYK color." Other image editing software that supports CMYK files will have similar conversion steps.
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Make any necessary color corrections. Converting from RGB to CMYK will change some of the colors, most notably bright reds and greens. Each color space has its own gamut, or range of colors, that it is able to reproduce. Monitors use the RGB color space and can show a wider gamut of colors than CMYK is able to reproduce in print.
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Decide which file type you need to use. There are many types of graphics file formats available, but not all are supported by every image editing program, and some do not support the CMYK color space. The most common file types that support CMYK are .PSD, .EPS, .TIFF and .JPG files.
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Print separations to your inkjet or laser printer to make sure that your file separates properly. Some programs, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, will allow you to preview separations onscreen (Reader will not do this, however).
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Keep in mind how much ink is going to be used when the art is printed. A CMYK file that puts a solid amount of ink on all four color plates is going to saturate the paper and look smeared. Ask your printer what the maximum amount of ink should be for your project and prepare your artwork to take that number into account. Edit your image as needed to keep the ink density within workable levels.
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Tips & Warnings
Preview color separations and check for problems.
Ask the printer what file types to use.
Keep backup copies of original RGB images.
Not all software supports the CMYK color mode.
Don't exceed 300% total ink density.
