Print ready image

[meetdilip]

Hi, I wonder whether we can use Krita to make GIMP and Inkscape PNG output print-ready ? I mean business cards, brochure etc professionally. If yes, it would be nice to know how to do it ?

Thanks.

[rich2005]

An explanation of what is going on. From the original post, the request is:

Quote:...Like I have a long rectangular image. It is a photograph of what was a long rectangular piece of paper. Now  I want to print it across a number of A4 sheets and I will stick them together.
If I could for instance  move a rectangle across the image that represents the size of an A4 sheet

All sorts of ways to do that, I proposed using the built in A4 template which is set at 300 ppi, the rule of thumb setting for printing. That gives an view of how that long image might fit. That involved scaling the image. For printing there is a choice, scale the image yourself or let the printer software do the scaling, up-to-you. I prefer to scale myself.

Back to Gimp. By default the interface is set up in the View menu with Dot-for-Dot ON. One image pixel = one image pixel when the scale is 100%
You can turn Dot-for-Dot off and at 100% scale the image displays at the 'real-life' printed size, according to the ppi set by the image. For this image 96x96 ppi.
see: https://docs.gimp.org/2.10/nl/gimp-view-...r-dot.html

   

Changing the ppi to 300 ppi, displays the image at 'real-life' size, which might be small.  

   

Scaling the image up to fit A4 @ 300 ppi gets a large image, that at 100% zoom does not fit in the computer monitor,  Just the same as a sheet of paper, unless you have one of those large monitors.

   

Where to find the computer monitor / screen resolution that Gimp uses ? Look in Edit -> Preferences -> Display , where Gimp set the value. You can calibrate it yourself. My laptop, small screen 1920 x 1080 , has a pixel density of 158x158 a more regular monitor might be 96 x 96.

[meetdilip]

Does this take care of the colour profile problem as well ? Thanks.

[rich2005]

Quote:..Hi, I wonder whether we can use Krita to make GIMP and Inkscape PNG output print-ready ? I mean business cards, brochure etc professionally.
and
Does this take care of the colour profile problem as well ?

Are you referring to CMYK for printing ? Both Gimp and Inkscape are RGB editors. Gimp using the Cyan plugin can convert to CMYK but all your actual editing is done in RGB.
The advantage of Krita is you can go start-to-finish in CMYK. If you import your Gimp / Inkscape png into Krita you can see any colour change due to the smaller CMYK gamut but a big tool just for changing the colour space.

Is Krita best for biz cards / brochures ? Debatable. Graphics maybe, but text handling IMHO leaves a lot to be desired. Might be OK for biz cards. For brochures with lots of text, then the tool to use is Scribus.

Forgot this about Krita. No PDF export. and for those png files. png is a RGB format you need to export as tiff or jpeg

[meetdilip]

Hi, thanks. I purposefully skipped the word CMYK.

Let us say we drew whatever we want using GIMP and/or Inkscape and now we have a PNG that is meant for printing. I assume that if it is a business card or Brochure PNG and sent for printing, it will have some colour issues. I was hoping to pass this PNG through Krita so that it is CMYK ready.

I understand that Krita is a big and complex tool to do this task. But I have Krita and I am not good enough to draw on it like GIMP or Inkscape. Get the output from GIMP or Inkscape and open with Krita, and fix it.

Sadly, I do not know how to " fix it ".

[rich2005]

Quote:...we have a PNG that is meant for printing. I assume that if it is a business card or Brochure PNG and sent for printing, it will have some colour issues. I was hoping to pass this PNG through Krita so that it is CMYK ready...

You can use Krita to convert the colour space but do not expect it to magically make those out of gamut colors OK.
"..some colour issues" = they will be less bright compared to a RGB computer display.

example: https://i.imgur.com/jW8hR81.jpg
This one left side is Gimp RGB and center the same as a view with soft-proofing showing out-of-gamut colours. Everything is out of gamut. The right side is the RGB image processed by Krita to convert to CMYK colourspace, then exported back as a png. That automatically saved as RGB with the muted colours. Nothing out of gamut. You could say it is CMYK ready.

I suppose you could send that converted RGB png image to a printer who will then convert it to CMYK for printing, but it is a bit of a round-about method when you could export the same from Krita in a format that supports CMYK - tiff / jpeg / PSD

[meetdilip]

Understood. Inkscape allows users to choose from a CMYK colour palette. I can see a CMYK palette in GIMP as well. So does it mean we can pick colours from those and sent the exported PNG to Krita for a simple conversion ?

Also, in Krita is it as simple as opening an RGB PNG from GIMP and while saving, use the CMYK profile.

I am asking a lot of doubts. It is mainly because not yet tried a CMYK output through Krita. Thanks.

[rich2005]

Quote:... I can see a CMYK palette in GIMP as well. So does it mean we can pick colours from those and sent the exported PNG to Krita for a simple conversion ?

I think you have colour profiles 'something'.icc in inkscape - https://i.imgur.com/nF12cYE.jpg
mixed up with palettes. - a set of colours - as in inkscape - https://i.imgur.com/sHu7c8X.jpg

Of course the same applies in Gimp you can set a colour profile for soft proofing in Preferences and you have a set of palettes in your installation files. I have never seen a CMYK palette unless I installed one myself. FWIW, one I made for my use attached. Looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/las90fm.jpg  
No guarantee that all the colours are 'in-gamut' it depends on the icc profile that is used for printing. You should make one for yourself.

Regardless of using a CMYK icc profile. Both Gimp and Inkscape are RGB editors and that is the type of image they export.

To be really safe, you convert your RGB image to CMYK and determine if it is suitable. All sorts of ways to make a conversion. On-line websites / Krita / Gimp - cyan plugin / ImageMagick as well as the expensive stuff.

Quote:..Also, in Krita is it as simple as opening an RGB PNG from GIMP and while saving, use the CMYK profile.

Almost. Convert the colour space from the Image menu, Export as a png and because png is RGB only it is changed back to RGB with the 'safe' colours. https://i.imgur.com/336LTLZ.jpg

[meetdilip]

Thanks. I will take time and go through the post.

I opened Krita and tried to follow the screenshot. Everything was fine but there is only one colour profile which is Chemical Proof (default).



This is the CMYK option I found in GIMP 2.10

   

[meetdilip]

I found this

https://www.color.org/registry/index.xalter