Has anyone else noticed that when a shadow is placed on text in InDesign CS2, it affects the grayscale image? I am having problems with this. It seems to lighten my grayscale image. It seems to not have any effect on CMYK images. We just printed a large black and white catalog. Every page that had drop shadowed text, the image printed lighter. Any solutions?
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InDesign Text Drop Shadows Affecting Grayscale Images
- Thread starter GenaN1
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eugenetyson
Technical User
Was it the whole of the image or just parts of the image, i.e., the parts where the text drop shadowed (is that a word?) on?
- Thread starter
- #3
The text with the shadow did not have to touch the image. As long as it was on the same page it affected the grayscale image.
I tried bringing the image in as a tif, eps, with and without an embedded profile, but the minute I put a shadow on the text the image became lighter overall. I lost anywhere from 4 to 8 percent in the shadow areas. It did not make any difference if the shadow was turned to "multiply" or "normal" or "darken" or "lighten". It seemed to not affect the CMYK image at all.
I tried bringing the image in as a tif, eps, with and without an embedded profile, but the minute I put a shadow on the text the image became lighter overall. I lost anywhere from 4 to 8 percent in the shadow areas. It did not make any difference if the shadow was turned to "multiply" or "normal" or "darken" or "lighten". It seemed to not affect the CMYK image at all.
eugenetyson
Technical User
Wow. That is a puzzler.
Can you tell me your output methods, settings etc. Is it just on output or is it visible on screen? What output methods are you using, export to PDF etc? What colour profiles are you using. Are you using a different colour profile between apps?
Run me through every aspect from applying the drop shadow, all the elements on the page and their settings, right up until you see the problem. What are the settings and etc.
Can you tell me your output methods, settings etc. Is it just on output or is it visible on screen? What output methods are you using, export to PDF etc? What colour profiles are you using. Are you using a different colour profile between apps?
Run me through every aspect from applying the drop shadow, all the elements on the page and their settings, right up until you see the problem. What are the settings and etc.
...how are you measuring the percentage loss, opening a pdf in photoshop?
...it is a known on screen difference to how indesign renders a page with drop shadows in combination with grey images, even in acrobat they can look different, however the percentage values should be identical...
...when you say printed, are we talking about directly from indesign or acrobat via pdf?
Andrew
...it is a known on screen difference to how indesign renders a page with drop shadows in combination with grey images, even in acrobat they can look different, however the percentage values should be identical...
...when you say printed, are we talking about directly from indesign or acrobat via pdf?
Andrew
- Thread starter
- #6
I copied and pasted the photo only to a new document and once pasted it was darker than on the other doc. I made a new type box, applied the drop shadow and immediately it changed the photo. You can see it happen on screen. I did this test thinking it was because we were had converted the quark doc to an Indesign doc and some sort of preset in the template from quark was causing this but, as mentioned above, I was able to duplicate the same problem on a brand new document. I sycronized all my Adobe apps and that did not make the problem go away. As I mentioned before, you can see the problem immediately on screen. I tried pdfing out of InDesign, postscripting it out to Acrobat. I could pull up the original scan and rasterize the pdf in photoshop and see the difference between the two images. If the image had an embedded profile I would use that profile to open the pdf into Photoshop. Making a pdf the same way without the dropshadow text, then the pdf image would look the same as the original scan in photoshop. I was able to duplicate the same problem on 2 other machines even with one InDesign that was slightly older ( had not been updated) thinking that maybe one of the updates had a bug in it. My next step is to test InDesign CS3. Unfortunately, we are such a big company it takes so long for us to get the last and greatest software. So it could be awhile to get CS3 for everyones machine.
...use indesign's separation preview palette, turn it on and hover the mouse over a part of the image, the value will appear as a percentage, do it with a drop shadow and without, they should be identical even though the screen render differs...
Andrew
Andrew
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- #9
Number wise when both are brought into Photoshop there is a difference between the two images (scan verses rasterized pdf). I did another test with a grayscale image and CMYK image on one document and when the drop shadow was activated, the grayscale image shifted but the cmyk image did not.
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- #10
eugenetyson
Technical User
You say you copied and pasted the photo. I wouldn't do this, it's not the same as placing. Sometimes, I noticed, that when I copied and placed an image it doesn't appear in the links panel (Windows>Links). I would say this is a no no, as the document is in CMYK mode (or RGB) and as famously known InDesign and Photoshop (illustrator) don't use the same values for pantones, but seemingly it's the same across different colour spaces. It would seem like the grayscale is being converted to CMYK (RGB) on copy and paste, then opened in photoshop converts back to grayscale, seemingly changing the values between apps.
You should try link your images, by placing into indesign. You should also ensure that InDesign, Illulstrator and Photoshop are using the same colour space, like Euroscale Coated or something similar, depending..
You should try link your images, by placing into indesign. You should also ensure that InDesign, Illulstrator and Photoshop are using the same colour space, like Euroscale Coated or something similar, depending..
- Thread starter
- #14
eugenetyson
Technical User
As I said, as long as the images are a direct link to the images then they will appear in print exactly as they are in photoshop. If they are not linked it maybe that they are being converted to colour and back to grayscale altering the colours, maybe. I don't know I'm just typing thoughts.
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- #17
eugenetyson
Technical User
I can't say if this is the issue, but worth investigating.
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- #19
eugenetyson
Technical User
What about if you turn off the overprint preview?
This could sound weird, but perhaps your images have a coloured background, like white or black or something? Probably not though.
This could sound weird, but perhaps your images have a coloured background, like white or black or something? Probably not though.
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