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Bonjour-Bonsoir
Participant
October 9, 2021
Answered

Mixing rvb and CMYK - Photomontage - Export

  • October 9, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 308 views

Hello!

I transform pictures in Illustrator on RGB photo backgrounds but with some drawings that I add in CMYK (photomontages). Then I import these pictures in the .ai format into Indesign to export my final document in CMYK for the printing. Would anyone advise me to proceed differently for the best result?

(see the attachment please: it shows a photomontage into Illustrator)

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer BobLevine
Stick with RGB with proper color profiles.

There is zero reason in 2021 to convert anything to CMYK. Let the printer handle it.

1 reply

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
October 9, 2021
Stick with RGB with proper color profiles.

There is zero reason in 2021 to convert anything to CMYK. Let the printer handle it.
    B
    Bonjour-BonsoirAuthor
    Participant
    October 9, 2021

    Thank you very much BobLevine. I'll only work with RGB into Illustrator. At the end I will export with the color profiles my printer gave me for his CMYK print. In order to export correctly into Indesign I think I have to set the space for transparency fusion in CMYK. Is this correct?

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 9, 2021

    Illustrator handles color differently than InDesign—it has a single document color space, while InDesign allows a mix of native RGB, Lab, and CMYK colors on the same page. An InDesign document has RGB and CMYK color profiles assigned, and a Transparency Blend Space to handle the color modes.

     

    If your Illustrator document’s color mode is RGB and you place a CMYK image, the placed image will get converted to document RGB when you save it as an .AI file and place it in InDesign. To prevent the placed CMYK object from converting to RGB, you would have to Save As a PDF from Illustrator with no color conversion (i.e the default PDF/X-4 preset).

     

    There are still  reasons to work with CMYK color, the obvious would be documents containing black or gray text or vector lines that you want to prevent from converting to 4-color, or primary CMYK color builds that you don’t want to contaminated via a color managed conversion (for example 100% cyan or yellow). In almost all cases RGB black text will convert to 4-color

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