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fedeboraxx
Known Participant
November 10, 2023
Question

Washed out colours on PDF export

  • November 10, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 1751 views

Hello there,

I've got an Indesign file for WEB purposes, it's got some some film grain overlays, and a solid colour overlay (in darken), but when I export, the colours get washed up.  The file is in RGB blend space, and I've tried every single export preset (interactive AND print) but it never works. 

 

The file looks like this on indesign:

 

The export looks like this in MAC PREVIEW (weirdly, the thumbnail looks OK)

 

 

The file looks good on Acrobat, but I can't demand clients use Acrobat (most use Preview). I've tried using PUBLISH ONLINE, but that messes up almost everything else. 

 

Many thanks!

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    2 replies

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 10, 2023

    Hi @fedeboraxx , Try setting your Export Output tab to this:

     

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    fedeboraxxAuthor
    Known Participant
    November 11, 2023

    Thanks Bob and Rob! 

    Exporting with Acrobat 4 compatibility does the trick! However, this just works as a print PDF and I lose all my hyperlinks in the doc. I imagine color conversion is not available in Acrobat 5 and above?

     

    Perhaps I'm better off creating the images (with color overlays, film grain etc) in Photoshop and keep the Indesign project simple.  Unless I'm missing something here.

     

    Thanks again

      rob day
      Community Expert
      rob dayCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 11, 2023

      Acrobat 5 and higher keeps the transparency effect live (the color can still be converted) the print driver has to handle the flattening. If you are Exporting to Interactive all color gets converted to sRGB, but transparency effects do not get flattened. You could try flattening with AcrobatPro-- see print tools.

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 10, 2023

      Preview is garbage! It has always been garbage!

       

      You are exporting an Adobe PDF. Outside of Acrobat or Reader, there's no way to know what you're going to get.

      F
      fedeboraxxAuthor
      Known Participant
      November 10, 2023

      True, but thisis the first time I've had such a disconnect between a working doc and the output in preview. And it's all within the RGB space, no desire to print anything. How can I minimise this difference?

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 10, 2023

      You could try flattening any transparency but that's probably going to litter it with stitching. Sorry, but beyond using PDF/X-4 I can't help troubleshooting Preview. How does it look in a browser?

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