from RGB to Photos

[convex]

I am trying to print out some of my digital work done as RGB 800x600 by using the kodak kiosk machine. I want to print them as 10"x8" . I am not sure if its better to keep them as RGB or transform them to CMYK before printing. Anyone tried that or has any ideas?

[dave milbut]

as they're supposed to be consumer models, i'd guess that rgb is the way to go. have yo read the instructions on the machine? if it doesn't mention i'd stick w/rgb or call kodak if you want to be sure.

[nospam]

Well since these things are designed for printing images from consumer
digital cameras and since consumer and just about all non-professional
digital cameras shoot RGB I would think it wants you to start with an RGB
image. If it does and you convert to CMYK you will either end up with poorer
quality prints as often times the printer driver does a better RGB to CMYK
conversion for the printer than Photoshop will who knows nothing of the
hardware. Or, it will convert the CMYK to RGB and then back to its own CMYK
which could degrade the image giving you a poorer quality print, which since
you at printing 800x600 images is a concern to start with.

R

[Bert Bigelow]

Convex,
Just to amplify George's remarks, you need somewhere between 200 and 300 pixels/inch for a good quality print. An 800x600 image won't give you decent print quality much above 4x3 inches.
Bert

[convex]

Since the work was done as PSD I was able to save jpg files with 6000x4500 with 600 pixel/inch without losing the quality. The thing is that the PSD started as 800x600 and 100 pixel/inch however, exporting the file with a much higher resolution did not affect the quality. I am not sure if thats normal, or since the work is a collage of different images at high resolution. They were never intended to be printed. I still get confused with the resolution of images and resizing them in a PSD file.

I tried it out as RGB and 8x10" and it came out good except it was a little darker so some details vanished in the dark. I asked the man who works there about the CMYK and RGB, he did not offer any help since he was not familiar with what I am talking about, however he said that he can make the whole image lighter if its coming out dark and if there are some colors not ciming out as they should, he can calibrate the machine to give what I need.
Thank you all for your help and advices, I will stick to RGB your explanation about digital cameras and the commercial use makes sense.

[Phil Scarsbrook]

Convex, definately use RGB. We have one of these units in our retail showroom. The prints are made on a dye-sub printer inside of the kiosk. You would probably get better results if there is a photo lab in your area that has a digital printer. The digital prints are generally better quality and cost less than the kiosk prints.

[Cheesefood]

I generally have more problems when I try to print CMYK on a consumer printer. The first being the amount of time it takes to spool, the last problem being inconsistant output.

[ninjasavant]

1. I usually get richer color when keeping it as RGB.
2. Based on the transferrance of PPI to DPI, most consumer printers won't have any better quality than using 175 ppi (the resolution set in Photoshop). I used to know the equation but don't anymore, I just remembered that it worked out to 175.

-ninja