CMYK jpegs display with wrong colours

[Robolovsky]

I have read one or two other posts about this problem but no solutions.

I use PSP X3 for web image editing and am sometimes sent jpeg files which are in CMYK format. Unfortunately PSP does not display the colours in these files correctly. Yellow will display as brown, pale blue as turquoise and pink as purple for example.

If I open the same file in almost any other programme, including the humble "Paint", the colours display fine and my workaround up until now has been to open in another programme, copy the picture to the clip board and then paste it into PSP as a new image. The colours are then fine but it greatly increases my work time, especially when I have many images to process.

There is a post in this forum from last year where someone reported the same problem and a support person was looking into it. However no solution was ever posted. Surely there must be a way to get these images to display correctly. It has nothing to do with monitor or gamma adjustment otherwise they would display incorrectly in all other programmes also.

Maybe it is a bug or just something that Corel have overlooked. RGB jpegs display fine, the problem only occurs with CMYK images.

i would be grateful for any and all input on this.

[teknisyan]

Can you check via HELP > ABOUT... and see if your version number is 13.2.1.20 or higher? If its lower, I would suggest that you update your program via HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES or download all updates here: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ ... 9872271743.

[Robolovsky]

Hi Abiel

I am already using version 13.2.1.20 and when I check for updates it tells me that none are available.

I suspect that this issue is not peculiar to me and that it would be easy to reproduce by your tech guys.

I am attaching a small file: sample.jpg which shows the correct (ticked) and incorrect (crossed) image colours. This sample image was created in PSP by using a copy & pasted version of the CMYK file from another programme (correct colours) and the same file opened directly in PSP (incorrect colours).

Showing correct and incorrect versions.

sample.jpg (19.46 KiB) Viewed 9685 times

I have also uploaded the original CMYK image file (too large to attach here) to my Mediafire webspace where you can download it for testing purposes using this link: http://www.mediafire.com/i/?z4rds8g131q0g36

Hope this helps to illustrate the problem.

[Robolovsky]

Hi Tim

I have tried twice to post a reply to Abiel but it has still not appeared. Could you please check and get my post up please?

Thanks, Rob.

[Ron P.]

Hi Rob,

The board has a security measure in place to slow down spam. It requires the staff to manually approve a new member's first few posts. I've deleted one of your duplicated posts, and approved the others.

I've also looked at this CMYK issue and found the same thing. PSP does not properly display them. I used CorelDraw X4's CMYK in comparison. I'm not a power-user of PSP, but I'm sure Levi, suz-shook, cassel, whom are very devoted users, are also very aware of this bug. What can be, or is being done is anyone's guess. I think Corel has made a total train-wreck out of PSP. They've took a very powerful program developed by Jasc, and over a period of 4 versions, managed to make a mess of it.

[Robolovsky]

Thanks Ron P. I was aware of the security measure but when the post had not been cleared after 24 hours I was a little concerned, hence the duplicate post.

I quite agree with your comments about PSP. I have been using it since the Jasc days and would have been very happy to have stuck with their final version before Corel took over. Unfortunately upgrading to a Win 7 machine meant having to get X3 for full compatibility. I guess you tend to stick with what you know and I do like the PSP interface although, even with my powerful i7 machine, it is still quite slow on some processes.

This CMYK problem however is really unacceptable. All the advertising for the program claims full CMYK compatibility so why are the colours wrong?

I would love to hear from Levi, suz-shook, cassel and anyone else who is aware of this bug and may be able to offer an opinion. Surely we can get this to the attention of the Corel developers. They have already issued 4 service packs for X3, how about a 5th to irradicate, once and for all, what is a fundamental failing.

[Robolovsky]

Since my previous post I have also tested the graphic in version 8 of the (then) Jasc PSP which I have on another machine. It appears fine and with the correct colours. In those days there was an option in the general preferences to specify a CMYK colour profile. This is blank in my version.

I also have on the same machine the first of the Corel PSPs, version X. This already does not display the image correctly. It looks as though this was the first version to introduce the Colour management and Colour workspace settings as separate items. It does not seem to be possible to have no CMYK profile specified as in the older version.

I suspect that if it was possible to turn off CMYK profiles, it would display correctly. This is obviously not a satisfactory state of affairs though.

[Robolovsky]

A couple of other test I have done.

1) Create a small image and fill it with yellow. Save it out as a Tiff and in the Tiff options select CMYK under Color Channels. Close the file and then open it again in PSP. It displays as a dull brown. For that matter try opening it in any other graphics program including Photoshop and it is not the original colour.

2) Create the yellow image again. In the Image menu choose Split Channel and select CMYK. The four CMYK channel images appear. Click on the original yellow image and in the Image menu choose combine channel ensuring that the Sync box is ticked. Once again a brown image is produced.

A serious problem with the CMYK handling I think.

[LeviFiction]

I'm actually familiar with the topic you speak of. Sometimes I'm just not sure of Mr. Josephlin he has a way of never reporting back. Fortunately I think he's a lot better at his job than he is at posting here.

Anyway, 10 to 1 says it's one of the many bugs that were never sorted in X3. However, I just tried it in X2 Ultimate and received the same problem as in X3. Opening in PhotoImpact resulted in darker colors and opening in Photoshop gave them exactly as you would expect them.

If it's like the other issues in X3 it'll be resolved or hidden away in the next version of PSPX4. We were promised a fifth patch in X3 for various things but it doesn't look forth-coming now that a new version of PSP is probably on its way. Was advised on more than one occasion to just wait for X4 by a Corel employee.

So sadly there isn't a fix that I'm aware of. Have you tried every CMYK color space? I noticed once using the standard SWOP that the white areas turned blue so maybe there is something that can be done. But most likely not as it appears that PSP just isn't interpreting CMYK colors properly.

[Robolovsky]

Yep! I have Photoshop also and it displays CMYK images perfectly. You might wonder why I don't just use Photoshop instead of PSP. The reality is that I have PSP set up in a way that speeds up most operations over Photoshop.

It's all very well for Corel to say wait for the next version, but we all have to pay more bucks for those versions. It's just not right to have to pay for their mistakes. They should fix this and quick!

[LeviFiction]

I just tried this in PSPX and get the same color distortions there as well. Seems this isn't new or there's something wrong with my system and PSP.

I also use PSP over Photoshop. So I never question that of anyone else, though I do question it of myself. XD

[Robolovsky]

I have version X also. the first of the Corel branded ones and indeed it has the same problem. Looks like they've had this from the outset. None of the Jasc versions had it! Why are Corel not doing anything about it?

I've posted this problem to the Experts Exchange and one of their guys has put a bug report in to Corel. We'll see what happens.

[Robolovsky]

Does Corel ever read theses posts? It would be nice to have some comment.

I posted the same query to The Expert's Exchange and several of their guys tried this out with exactly the same results. One guy posted a bug report to Corel and was told to reset all preferences to defaults. Needless to say this had no effect what so ever. Since then he has heard nothing! Why are Corel so reluctant to admit this is a problem of their own making?

[LeviFiction]

That is one big problem, Corel doesn't really report the problems all that much. They will report them to the knowledgebase if a viable work-around has been developed or found but until then most problems (not all but most) go unanswered until a fix is found. So don't take their silence as proof they aren't doing something. Would really appreciate a "okay, we'll look into that" kind of reply but they have fixed things before without letting us know it had all been reported properly.

[Robolovsky]

Would it help if we all posted bug reports? My understanding is that having created an account you just use option 3 on their warranty support page. Maybe if multiple reports were received they might just realise there is a problem.