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Inspiring
December 11, 2022
Answered

color mode and color profile in Id

  • December 11, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1877 views

Hi,

 

I made a new docuement.

My question is abour color.

 

In Adobe Illustrator, I can set color more (RGB) and color profile (sRGB) from creating a new document.

 

How would I mange the color in Id?

 

Hosun

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer rob day

Is that what you mean here?

 

Hosun

 


If you are designing only for ePub or other screen destinations, make sure your document’s assigned RGB profile is sRGB and the Transparency Blend Space is left as Document RGB. In that case CMYK, Lab or RGB colors should all export with an unchanged appearance.

3 replies

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 13, 2022

Color management in InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat should be set up in Photoshop > Edit > Color Settings. Then, use Bridge > Edit > Color Settings to synchronize the decisions you make in Photoshop color management over to InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat.

 

My favorite settings are Adobe RGB (1998), for anything RGB, and Coated GRACOL for anything that is strictly CMYK printing press. I also choose GRACOL for Gray, and I leave Spot alone. Then, I find it is useful to set Color Management Policies to "Convert to Working ..." for all three: RGB, CMYK, and Gray. This enforces workflow color management sameness. Finally, I turn off all three Ask Me switches, just because I don't want to answer the same question over and over in a dialog box. Just do it, I say. I leave the rest of the Color Settings dialog box at default values for Conversion Options and Advanced Controls. To complete your holistic color management, click Save... and give your color management method a name. Ok. Ok again. Now it is off to Adobe Bridge > Edit > Color Settings. Choose the same custom-named color management settings. Ok. This silently reaches out to InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat and changes their color management settings to be the same as what you decided in Photoshop. Now all 4 are synchronized. Check them to be sure. It doesn't hurt to pick your custom-named .CSF color settings file directly in InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat. 

 

Now you can effectively stop worrying about color profiles. New documents merely need to be set to either RGB or CMYK color mode / transparency blend mode. Nowadays, I work RGB fully, and convert to CMYK printing press only at the moment of exporting a PDF where I choose the commercial-printery-recommended color profile (there can be exceptions to that in specific printing scenarios).

 

Since you are designing an EPUB, you would likely choose RGB color mode in Photoshop, Illustrator, and RGB transparency blendmode in InDesign. You only consider the sRGB outcome at the moment you export the EPUB. That is done automatically. When exporting PDF, you would choose your output color space destination, which could be RGB for online viewing or a specific CMYK printing colorspace for a physically-printed job.

 

Approached this way, for most projects, you get to stop micro-managing the color translation process that is handled by the behind-the-scenes Adobe Color Engine, aka ACE. Focus instead on good design and better workflow techniques.

Mike Witherell
rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 13, 2022

New documents merely need to be set to either RGB or CMYK color mode

 

Hi Mike, I think it is worth noting that the Intent set in Document Setup is not the same as a document level Color Mode—Web or Mobile might be your intent, but it doesn’t mean there can’t be CMYK objects in the document.

 

If I set up a document with the Intent set to Web or Mobile, I can still make a new CMYK Swatch (the new swatch Color Mode is sticky from that last Color Mode choice). If I make a CMYK swatch in a doc with a Web intent, its color appearance is handled by the document’s assigned CMYK profile, not the Color Settings Working CMYK profile, which might not be the same.

 

If there are no CMYK colors, swatches, or unprofiled CMYK images, the document CMYK profile is still assigned but not used.

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 15, 2022

I agree, Rob. I often forget to mention document intent. I have always found that InDesign is quite flexible with having swatches either way, and I end up making all my swatches per the design.

Mike Witherell
rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 11, 2022

Hi @Hosun26059267k946 , InDesign doesn’t have a single document color space like Illustrator and Photoshop—you can mix CMYK, RGB, Lab defined colors in the same document. InDesign lets you assign both an RGB and CMYK profile to the document—see Edit>Assign Profiles..., and it includes a Transparency Blend Space to handle mixed color modes when the spread has transparency

 

You can set an Intent from the Document Setup as @Rene Andritsch suggests, but all that does is set the default Swatches and the Transparency Blend Space to either RGB or CMYK—once you set the Intent, you can still create new swatches in any color space or change the blend space. Here the Intent is RGB, but I have a mix of CMYK, Lab, and RGB fills on the page:

 

 

 

As a summary, can I understand that color profile determines/influences color mode?

 

InDesign document has an RGB and CMYK profile assignment—the RGB assignment handles the color managed preview of document RGB colors and swatches, and the CMYK assignment handles document CMYK colors and swatches. You can see that in my mixed color example—if I change the RGB assignment it affects the RGB fill, but not the CMYK and Lab fills:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiring
December 13, 2022

Can I understand; Settings are more relevent to CMYK than to RGB?

 

Hosun

 

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 13, 2022

Color Settings are the application color preferences—the settings that will be used for new documents. Normally they have no affect on existing documents.

 

For existing documents the assigned profiles manage the preview of RGB and CMYK colors in the document. So, any document can have a mix of RGB, CMYK and Lab colors (there is no single document color mode), and changing the profile assignments affects the document’s CMYK and RGB colors and swatches:

 

 

 

 

 

Rene Andritsch
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 11, 2022

When creating a new document in InDesign you can choose your output intent as Print, Web or Mobile. This will also set your document colors. For web documents all the colors in the Swatches Panel will be RBG and with print documents your colors will be CMYK by default.

 

 If you want to change it after you created the document go to the menu “File > Document Setup”, the color Settings can be found in the menu “Edit > Color Settings”


Also the Transparency flattening will use the respective color space. If you want to keep all color settings consistent across your apps use Adobe Bridges function (Edit > Color Settings or CMD/CTRL + K) to set them for all your apps at once.

Inspiring
December 11, 2022

I want to make a reflowable EPUB.

So, I choose:

- Web (for RGB) 

- the associated Working Space (sRGB IEC61966-2.1)

 

What is Settings in Color Settings?

 

Hosun

 

Inspiring
December 11, 2022

In Document Setup, which one is better for EPUB: Web or Mobile?

 

Hosun