Colors on Pages in InDesign Not Consistent Across Book

Forum|Forum|20 days ago
February 2, 2026
3 replies
128 views

I am experiencing an issue in InDesign where the elements on my pages across my documents in a book are not consistent in color. When I copy them over from one page to another, the color changes.

Anyone encounter something like this before?

As seen below, the dark blue color is what I would like to use and the lighter blue is what the same block is pasted as in another document in my book:

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @RQ8301 , Is there a reason you are defining you color swatch as Spot? Will the book be printed on an offset press running extra spot plates? If not define your New Color Swatch Color Type as Process and make sure all the Book’s documents have the same color profile assignments (check Edit>Assign Profiles… not Color Settings...)

RQ8301Author

Participating Frequently

the document will be printed. I never knew the difference between them. Should I change to spot?

rob day

Community Expert

Should I change to spot?

Your Color Swatch dialog is showing Spot, but it sounds like your print output will be 4-color process (CMYK). Set the Color Type to Process and make sure the color has the same Color Mode and definition in all the book documents.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi RQ,

What does each document report when you click on File > Document Setup > Intent?

Also, have you checked Preferences > Clipboard Handling and maybe turn off both of the PDF switches so that InDesign copies and pastes native object and doesn’t have to fiddle with the Swatch color?

Mike Witherell

RQ8301Author

Participating Frequently

Hi Mike,

I checked those tips and neither made a difference for me. However, I think I may have found a workaround by just redownloading the swatches. However, now I am seeing a discrepancy between the colors on the parent pages vs the document pages (see below):