thanks for everyone's help with this matter. my editor found a very inexpensive version of photoshop CS3 (i don't know how he did it or who he knows) for me. so know i get to learn another program! yeah! i guess i needed to start using PS sooner or later, at least i can take the files back and forth between corel and PS.  thanks ...

what about illustrator, it's also inexpensive compared to a CS4.a few hundred bucks vs. 5 or 6 hundred bucks! the chicken, we will BBQ! dinner is at my house if i can get solved!

which of adobes products (illustrator,elements or CS3,4) will allow me to what is needed in supporting and adjusting CMYK colors and densities. adobe's web site was of little help. Also where can i get one without having to sell my house and first born? thanks again, you've all been a big help!

i figured as much. do we know why corel causes that separation and density change? can photshop fix that when it saves it in a tif/cmyk format? if it can, then what's the best file format i should use to make it easier? jpeg or can i still send them as a tif but as an RGB. their production guy is gonna' have to do it because i don't ...

i have no clue. the production manager said i should have my K or black always set at 100% and the C-M-Y colors set at 60-40-40 respectively. i have found no settings in corel painter XI.5 for cmyk densities. i'm figuring it's a PS C3 adjustment? rgb looks fine this only happens when converted to CMYK!

i've been having some trouble lately and i'm hoping someone here can help. when i save a tif. file and use the CMYK option, it overly separates the colors and pulls all the density from the darker colors creating a halo effect. my new editor is busting my chops, telling me it's not up to their specs and i need to adjust my CMYK ...