Coverting RGB to CMYK? emergency!

[sammagdalein]

Is it possible to convert a photo from rgb to cmyk in PS Elements? This is an emergency!

[BobHill]

In a word, NO, Sammadatein. You'd have to use full PhotoShop for CMYK colors, I'm afraid. If it's a onesy-twosy thing, you might take your RGB file to some place like Kinko's and have it converted for you (or other print house), but be aware that RGB to CMYK has some gamut color limitations.

Bob

[Bob Polk]

If you had The Hidden Power of Elements2 by Richard Lynch you could do this. It would also give you the power of Curves and Masks
Bob

[BobHill]

Bob,

The ability to convert RGB to CMYK DOES NOT exist in Elements, which is what the question was. There are other programs which will, of course. But none without additional cost. If this is an emergency one time thing, the place to go would be someone who has the immediate ability (such as Kinko's or a print house).

Bob

[Richard Lynch]

You can convert to CMYK using layers like filters, and essentially extending light theory and older, pre-digital separation concepts to what you do in Elements. It would take over 100 steps to explain exactly what to do here. It is possible to learn and best, learning helps you understand why you apply, and why you need to make the separations in the first place.

Saving out of elements to CMYK requires being a little tricky with file types. If you are familiar with DCS files (Desktop/Digital Color Separation), you can create the CMYK separations in layers, and export each to a component of a DCS file. It isn't hard, but is for limited usage. I would not enter a production CMYK environment using these methods.