Exporting work from Clip Studio - why dose it come out in RGB format?

oliver3 2016-07-04 13:08:21 UTC #1

So, I am doing my first comic in Clip Studio, when I export the pages they are in RGB although the work is to be printed, and the colours are drab and week. I know it will never be the same as on the screen but it seems a long way off and as I say, it is RGB and not CMYK which I would have assumed it should be to be tready for print? How do you properly export you Clip Studio Paint EX work for printing?

Tanisha 2016-07-04 13:19:13 UTC #2

Make sure that Clip studio is updated to it's latest version and you should be able to save it as CMYK only in jpeg format.
Mind you though that if you are making print ready artwork that it is best to work in CMYK format before hand. Which clipstudio paint cannot do at the moment.

AnnaLandin 2016-07-04 13:20:33 UTC #3

Clip Studio is not able to handle working in the CMYK colour-profile; it only does RGB.

There IS however a function that allows you to preview your image to see what it would look like in CMYK!

Go to View>Colour profile (it's all the way down at the bottom of the drop-down menu), then click "Preview settings". From the "Profile for preview"-dropdown menu, pick one of the CMYK-options, and your image will change to reflect what it would look like in CMYK.

When I convert my stuff to print, I use an old version of Photoshop, but you might have other options.

oliver3 2016-07-04 13:31:38 UTC #4

Hay, thank you for this! Wow, my work now looks really drab! I had assumed that Clip Studio was set up to make comics …. as in be print ready! how do I breath life back into the work? is it as simple as punching up the saturation in Photoshop? this is a real petty because Clip Studio is so brilliant to use but this could be a real stumbling block!

oliver3 2016-07-04 13:32:36 UTC #5

Cheers. Is it best to avoid Clip Studio for colour then?

AnnaLandin 2016-07-04 13:42:05 UTC #6

@oliver3 I've collected the first 3 chapters of my comic in print, and they were all coloured entirely in Clip Studio (or Manga Studio)! I did lose SOME of the brightness and intensity, but that was mainly in the very bright blue magical effects, and bright blue is an incredibly difficult colour to print, even when you do the original work in CMYK.

I made sure to get a proof-copy from the printer before I ordered the full print-run, so that I could take a good look at the pages in print and flip through the book - to see if I needed to make any changes. It turns out it looked just fine, even though my bright blue shades were a bit dimmed - but then, I work mostly in more natural colours, rather than the hyper-saturated and bright colour-spaces.

Not quite. Some things can be fixed with adjusting the colour balance and contrast, but some colours are pretty much unprintable. Bright teal, for example, and the brighest shades of green, or certain shades of violet. Basically, super-saturated colours will not look the same in print as they do on a computer monitor, regardless of how much you punch up the saturation.

Tanisha 2016-07-04 13:54:35 UTC #7

Not at all! The colors won't look that vastly different and you'll only have to play around with the colors a bit if it prints out strangley. For my comics cover in fact the reds look a bit brighter than what I wanted so it was something to note. And Clipstudios new feature to export in CMYK makes it a tad bit easier but it's really best to work in CMYK rather than converting from RGB to CMYK.

oliver3 2016-07-04 14:56:06 UTC #8

@AnnaLandin Hello, thank you for this, yes, my lead character has shocking pink hair and it is almost grey when converted! I used to use only Photoshop but since moving over I find Clip Studio is so much better to use, from the mechanics of drawing with it to the brushes are all better, except this apparently major floor! but I will push on and see how it all turns out Cheers.

oliver3 2016-07-04 14:59:27 UTC #9

Cheers, yes, I gusee I will have to keep an eye on the danger points and push on, as i said to @AnnaLandin - I find Clip Studio much better to use than Photoshop, except for this apparently major floor!

deceriacomics 2016-07-04 15:16:54 UTC #10

Hey, so have you tried actually printing the pages at all yet or they just look dull on the computer screen? What you are seeing on your screen in the CMYK preview is not necessarily how the colors will actually look in print. Try doing some test prints first before you make any major changes to your color settings. Also keep in mind that the type of printer and paper you use will affect the printed color result as well. Do you plan on using an inkjet printer or a laser printer? Is your paper matte, semi-matte, semi-gloss, or glossy? All of this affects how the color will look once it's printed.

oliver3 2016-07-04 15:29:03 UTC #11

HA! No (although that now sounds like the first thing I should have done!) but I have a basic ink jet printer in the studio and the client is going to print more professionally, I assume gloss as there is a bit of budget on this project but I can’t say for sure.

velldonnabarb 2016-08-07 13:41:01 UTC #12

Hi there. I'm just a lurker but I felt that I should add for anyone who's interested: there's an art program called Krita.
It's a free program that is excellent for painting especially. It works natively in CMYK, something that many other art programs can't do yet. If you don't want to color in Krita, you can always color in manga studio or whatever and then export into Krita to convert to CMYK and add some finishing adjustments.
I love Manga studio and paint tool sai, but they frustratingly lack CMYK capabilities. Luckily I'm just a hobbyist.
Tl/dr: Add the free art program Krita to your toolbox. It's awesome for CMYK.