Icc Profile Indesign
Jackie Bullinger
What I did was that I imported images already in CMYK, and then for text and graphic elements I used only CMYK colors (checked all in swatches panel, if I used accidentally RGB i changed it to CMYK via swatches panel).
But I'm completely lost in this "assign profile" and "convert to profile" settings"? Can somebody clearly explain why to use which, and what's the difference? And how my settings should look like, so I produce a "CMYK" PDF ready to print.
in more detail:If you have something that is looking wonky colorwise on screen, or printing strangely, the fastest, nondestructive way to see what might be going on is by assigning a different profile and viewing/printing again. Assign says all pixels keep your info, I'm just going to use a different set of instructions to decide what your info means visually.
Converting to a new profile does actually change data, color swatches, images, etc. will have new info created that tries to keep appearances as close as possible, but might have to invent new rgb/cmyk values to keep a semblance of the appearance in the new color space. It is destructive, actual information is changed and perhaps lost in the conversion. Think of it like converting an RGB image to CMYK in photoshop, you've actually changed the file and asked it to take the original 3 channels and convert them to the new 4 channel option. If you go back and forth between these actual conversions you start to degrade/seriously change the image/file.
Now, why there are two is for color management reasons. Convert is the correct way to ready something for print once all things are finalized, making sure the color profile is correct for your final print workflow. If you do need to convert the file to a new destination space, then I'd recommend saving an original, and making a new one with the converted space so you could go back readily if necessary.
Assign let's you tinker and at least visually try to figure out why what you're seeing on your screen is nothing like what you might have been expecting. It is not intended for a print workflow, its for helping you figure out what's what.
There are also some use cases where if something doesn't have a profile you want to first assign the one that looks best on your screen, then convert to the correct output one... Anyway, there are a lot of reasons for having both the assign and the convert options.
I am working between Photoshop and InDesign to prepare a presentation of a hand-drawn colour sketch which has been inverted in Photoshop to be on a black background. In Photoshop, I apply a custom ICC profile to a scanned image. Our head office has developed this profile and it has been checked in their office against the profile they use there (different scanner). They are happy with the unity of results between the two profiles for output files.
I am trying to convince head office that we should be working with InDesign instead of Photoshop for multi-page presentations and it is therefore important that any changes applied in Photoshop come across to InDesign too. At the moment, the Photoshop file (either as a PSD or as a PDF or JPG conversion) looks very different in Indesign. The blacks are grey. A JPG generated from Photoshop directly is attached along with 2 JPGs generated from INDD using proPhoto and sRGB .
I cannot see how to load this same ICC profile (RGB) into my InDesign template. In Colour Settings I get an error message of "Some parameters in the colour settings file could not be used. Default values will be used instead". How can I load the ICC profile?
Using a proPhoto profile is not bad, but the blues are far too bright. If this is the solution, I would need to create a Photoshop action or series of actions to colour manage the source document. I'd rather not.
I'm getting a booklet printed soon, and have liaised with the manufacturer a few times and I've been given the joboptions file for the PDF export, and the color profile (NxP21_g50_Coated_Gloss.icm). I already know how to change a color profile using Edit > Color Settings and such, and knew there was a load button there also, so figured this would be easy.
The profile was successfully installed on windows (right-click > Install Profile), and for good measure (after I got annoyed that it wasn't working of course), I also copied the profile to Common Files > Adobe > Color, etc but this seems to have made no difference either. Google has not helped me at all so far, other than to tell me what I already know, and how to preview a profile applied to a document that is already in the list of profiles.
What I want to do is preview what the document will look like when printed using this custom profile downloaded and installed to my computer, but InDesign nor Photoshop seem to give me any way of doing this seeing as the profile is not listed and there's no way to load it up properly. The closest I have gotten is in InDesign by going to Edit > Color Settings > Load... > load it, and then get the error saying 'Some parameters in the color settings file could not be used. Default values will be used instead.'
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Why is this so damn hard to do? Surely this kind of thing is a common pratice in the professional world (reciving new color profiles and then using them to preview work or even convert work)?
If you changed the default color settings (Edit > Color Settings...) it will have no effect on already existing files. You can also view the output as a Soft Proof on the monitor by going to View > Proof Setup... and choosing either the current working space or your printer's profile from the Custom... option, then View > Proof Colors.
Keep in mind that a soft proof is an RGB simulation of the actual output, which is mostly not a problem, but there are colors in the CMYK gamut that can't be reproduced accurately on any monitor, and unless your monitor itself is properly calibrated and profiled what you see most likely will not be accurate at all.
This is my issue though. The profile is not even listed in my Edit > Assign Profiles drop down list, nor my View > Proof Colors. I was sent the .icm file from the company that will be printing my work, so I do not own this exact printer either if that makes a difference.
Above are the color profiles it shows. Do any of them stand out as unusual? I've restarted the applications and my PC, no change. Am I missing something? I am right in thinking all you are supposed to have to do to get InDesign and Photoshop to see a new color profile, is install it?
Link isn't working for me (could be my security settings, but I don't think so since the next two images show). You can embed the image here in a post using the camera icon on the web page, like this:
Nope, all giboldy-gook, and the only readable information at the top is copyright stuff and a phrase saying 'prntCMYKLab'. The file is called the right thing anyway when I tell InDesign to load it but it fails -.-.
To begin with, I have experience with color management (assigning, converting, embedding color profiles, rendering intents, all that stuff.) I know how to do it stuff with Photoshop. But I'm having problems understanding how to EMBED a profile in an exported PDF from InDesign CS6. I want to print a long banner at a banner printing company. When I go into Adobe Bridge to see my exported PDF, it shows that it's "UNTAGGED." But I gave it the Destination Profile when I exported it. I thought it would embed. When I send it to the place that prints the banners, they end up with a huge color shift. I think it's because it's UNTAGGED. I'm finding that many of these banner places are unfamiliar with how color management works, let alone profiling their printers. So, to make their lives easier, they just tell their customers to convert to the standard, narrow US Sheetfed Coated profile. Except, I know that their printer can give out a lot more color than that. So, I actually export using a wide gamut CMYK profile and trust their RIP to do the conversion. This way, I'm able to eek out more much color because the RIP has their exact printer profile and it knows how to convert from my wide-gamut profile to their exact printer profile, which has much more color than the standard press profiles.
When you go to the Output settings, it's the options box right below the Destination: options box. By default, InDesign uses the Don't Include Profiles option. You want to change that to the Include Destination Profiles option. That should embed your preferred profile in the resulting PDF file.
Though I do have to say, you're skating on thin ice by embedding a profile that differs from your vendor's specs. If your resulting job delivers poor results, and your vendor catches that, you may end up eating that job and paying for the make-good as well.
Ah. Mike, with InDesign CS6 there is an explicit PDF/X-4 output preset. Use that, if the banner printing company requires a PDF/X-4 kind of PDF. Do not use "High Quality Print" as base for output.
Bridge can't give you accurate profile information about a PDF because PDF allows multiple objects with different color spaces and profiles. You can use AcrobatPro's OutputPreview>Object Inspector to look at the color space and profile of any object.
PDF/X-4 is an offset press standard and requires an Output Intent CMYK profile and all color objects must include profiles. The exception is document CMYK which exports as DeviceCMYK (no profile). If you really want document CMYK objects to include a profile you have to set the Standard to None and choose Include All Profiles in the Output tab.
I can understand why you think this might be a good idea, but modern CMYK output profiles are created by taking color readings from a printed press sheet, so using a random output class CMYK profile (that isn't an actual profile of the output device) as the source profile won't likely produce consistently good results. Usually for composite inkjet printer workflows the better approach is working with tagged RGB color and letting the conversion be directly from RGB into the printer's color space. So AdobeRGB-to-PrinterCMYK, rather than AdobeRGB-to-YourCMYK-toPrinterCMYK.
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