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Place graphics into InDesign

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yingchen50

Technical User
Feb 15, 2005
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I am disappointed with the result from placing photoes or drawings from Adobe photoshop or Illustrator into ID. The graphics are always distorted or less colorful. Would anyone give me some tips how to solve this problem?
 
View menu/Display performance/High Quality

To make default go to Indesign Prefs/display performance/Default and select high quality. In Adjust View settings click on high quality and slide everything to its highest setting.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4
 
Forgot something - make sure your color settings are the same in all 3 apps.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4
 
Photoshop - illustator - Indesign = all apps that you mentioned

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4
 
Well, you just helped open a can of worms here. The color settings in these 3 apps were different. I went into each app and changed them all into North America General Purpose. Then many other questions come up.

1. What is the difference between North America and U. S. Prepress? Which one is more appropriate for my production? I am using ID to create picture text books.
2. When selected North America, in the Color Mangement, cmyk is off in all 3 apps. Right?

3 In Illustator, shall I click "Advanced Mode" and check every box in Profile Mismaches?
4. In ID, I should check "Enable Color Management" right?
 
One more question:

Once I changed the color settings in the 3 apps, the changes will be applied to all the documents created prior to this day? If not, what shall I do?
 
If you're in the US it's easiest to use US prepress defaults.

All professional print jobs are run in cmyk.

If you embed color profiles in documents, color management should be ON. Read up in the help section about color profiles.

Changing color settings will not chnge prior work until you open the thing in the creator app and chnage its settings. Enable warnings about color mismatches in both illustrator and photoshop

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4
 
Got it. Just want to let you know that how much I appreciate your help on a Sunday whne every one is supposed to be off from working.
 
SOS. I changed all 3 apps' Color Settings to US Prepress and restarted the PC. When I opened the document I was working on, a dialogue box came on saying:

The document does not have an embedded RGB profile.

Leave as is (use current working space)
Assign current working Space: Adobe RGB 1998
Assign a profile (with Adobe RGB 1998 grayed)

Which one I should choose?
 
One more question: most of our photos and drawings were scanned in as RGB Jpeg. Shall I change each of them into CMYK and Tif before placing them into ID or shall I change it in the printer setting to CMYK before printing?
 
>>Shall I change each of them into CMYK and Tif before placing them into ID<<

Yes, even better is to leave them as CMYK PSDs. No reason to use TIFs unless you are not sure where the print job is headed.

Sorry I can't answer your other question re embedded RGB profiles.
 
Okay, here is what I did:

I set the color settings in ID,Photoshop and Illustrator as followings:

-Settings: U. S. Prepress default
-Enabled color management
-Advanced Mode checked
-Working spaces:
RGB Adobe RGB 1998
US Web Coated (SWOP) v2 (this is preset in this setting)
-Color management policies:
RGB preserve embedded profile
CMYK preserve .. .. ..
-Profile mismatch
all checked
-Converstion options:
Engine: Adobe (ACE)
Intent: RElative colorimemtric
-Use Black Point compensation.

I placed two graphics (one from Photshop, the other from Illustrtor) into ID and set print space as Document RGB first and then changed it to Samsung CLP-510 when I did the second printing. I have a Samsung color Laser CLP-510 printer.

The graphic in photoshop has a color mode set in CMYK and In the image color settings, it ahs US Web (SWOP) as CMYK color profile.

The graphic in Illustrator has a color mode in CMYK and the same color settings as in Photoshop.

Both of them are in tif file.

The result: both of them turned out to be much darker than seen on the monitor. The one printed with Ducument RGB print space is slightly darker than in Samsung.

What is wrong?
 
...worth checking your printer driver options aren't effecting the colours...

...in windows, i believe you have to go into your control panels > printers> (right click printer) Properties...

...look for anything that says colour management or colour adjustments and turn them off...

andrew
 
In my printer properties there are two choices under Color Management:

1. Automatic: Windows will automatic select the best color profile from the list of associated color profiles (Recommended) At this moment, this option is cheched.
2. Manual: Manually select the deafault color profile for all output from the list....
The default color profile is "CLP510."

In the add or remove box, CLP510 is the only choice listed.

Which one shall I choose?
 
...is your printer a postscript printer, if not, you will get better results printing RGB source files and images in composite RGB from indesign...

...even though your printer ay use cmyk toners, it is RGB information that it needs, not composite cmyk...

...if there is no option to turn colour management off in the windows printer driver, then leave to automatic...

...in indesign, composite rgb needs to be chosen in the output, in color management you need to set it to 'document profile rgb', color handling 'let indesign determine colors'. In 'printer profile' choose your 'CLP510' profile...

...at present you are trying to send cmyk images to an rgb printer, this won't look very good...

...just to clarify...

...keep your images in the rgb space, your indesign document to print in composite rgb, leave your windows printer as is if you can't turn colour management off...

andrew

 
...just to add...

...don't go converting your cmyk images back to rgb, this will be awful to undertake, go back to your original source rgb files...

... if you are sending your files to a commercial printer, they will require your images in cmyk...

...so before you send them to your print provider, convert images to cmyk in photoshop...

...(open the images in rgb 'preserve embedded profiles' and choose image > mode > convert to profile > select 'photoshop 5 default cmyk', select rendering intent to 'relative and absolute colorimetric'. The photoshop 5 default cmyk profile is a good profile to use as it doesn't flatten out colours too much)...

...to save time and the mundane task of all this you can set up an action in photoshop to do it all for you, then create a droplet that you can have on your desktop. This will allow you to process an entire folder of images in one hit...

...and then update your documents for your printer to use...

...essentially you will have all your source rgb files backed up, with layout files, and another copy for your commercial printer in cmyk...

andrew
 
There is a PostScript file in my printer. I never used it simply becasue I don't know how. In the PPD drop down menu
there are two choices: Device-Independent or Adobe 7.0.

This question doesn't seem to have an end, does it?
 
...it is a big area dealing with colour, a big learning curve...

...the postcript file option is no good to you as you don't have a postscript rip i imagine. This postscript file option creates postscript files on your hard disk, it isn't printing to device, it is printing to your desktop in other words...

...these files are what commercial printers use. The PPD is a description file for the rip or postcript device...

...a rip is a server computer connected to a network that sends postscript data to an imagesetter or postsript proofer...

...in the printer drop down menu, you need to select your CLP510, ignore anything else that may be available...

...the chances are your CLP510, isn't a postcript device that will like cmyk data, you need to send your prints as composite rgb...

...the AbobePDF 7.0 printer is meant for printing to pdf files, but indesign has a great pdf export feature, so better off just using that instead...

andrew
 
No kidding. I wished I had never taken on this project by myself. Now I have sunken so deep, I have now way out. But on the bright side, when this project is over, I will be a much smarter person. At this moment, I am still at calibrating my monitor. I am reading Norman Koren's encyclopedia on color managment. (By the way thank you for recommending it. It is really good and helpful) I checked the Control Panel of my PC and found Adobe Gamma. I went into it and double checked every thing. It is accurately set up accroding to what Norman recommended) My understanding is that with Adobe Gamma installed, I still need to purchase a third party calibrator in order to acheive optimum color printing. Right? If so, which one to buy? There are just too many choices. I need to buy one that is dummy proof so that I can just either download or instal from a disc. Any suggestions?

Or can I just work with what I have (Adobe gamma)without buying a calibrator?
 
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