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Changing CMYK values using title tool
Working in FCPX 10.2.3. II’ve been given a style guide by a client which contains written instructions for color with a specific CMYK value for texts. I input the value, save the color to the palette under the Face submenu and type out the text. Great. But then when I close the title tool and come back to it and reselect the Face submenu, the cmyk color values are different. I don’t see any noticeable color shift, but the values are all 4 to 10 points off the original CMYK values I inputted seconds earlier. To check, I imported the pdf of the style guide which contains the color as a full page and the good news is if you remove the drop shadow, to the naked eye the colors match, as the texts do indeed disappear into that background when laid over the top. That said, I’d like the piece of mind of the actual numbers being correct because I can’t trust these old eyeballs. Anybody have an explanation? Thanks
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4 Replies
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This is just a guess but perhaps the CMYK values that your client gave you are for their print adds. Unfortunately, print legal colors, and broadcast legal colors, are two different things, Maybe, FCP X is adjusting the values to keep them broadcast legal? (just a guess, but I’ve seen this happen with other video software) Nothing to worry about.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
FCPX works in RGB, not CMYK. CMYK is only for print and printed photography. The fact that you can call up CMYK sliders in the color palettes is a byproduct of tapping into the OS and doesn’t actually have anything to do with FCPX. So even if you set CMYK sliders, it’s going to convert to the closest RGB value.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “So even if you set CMYK sliders, it’s going to convert to the closest RGB value.”
Ok, so just as I suspected there is some conversion going on to match the closest color (CMYK <–> RGB).
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
Thanks guys. I ended up seeing if client had RGB equivalent values which were blessed by their team and went with that. What I found was even though, as you both mention, the CMYK is converted by FCPX to equivalent RGB, the conversion does in fact result in an ever so slight color shift, but strangely only after exiting and reentering the effect. In this case I made two exact same colored texts on the same screen, input both with exact same CMYK numbers and exited the effect. I then reentered one of the effects and re-inputted the original pre conversion CMYK value, and left the other one as is. The result was a slight difference even though in theory nothing changed. So somewhere between the exit and the enter, it is doing something internally that slightly changes the value and appearance. Side by side is really the only place you’d probably pick it up with the naked eye, but that was enough to go get a blessed RGB color value. I assume the eyedropper is taking into account the calibration of the screen? Is that how that works? Because the assigned eyedropper sample values were way off. Ahh FCPX, my quirky old friend….
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