When I export a PDF from InDesign, my black background turns grey. How can I fix that?

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
March 21, 2026
3 replies
110 views

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @knjjhvhgh,

Just checking in to see if the suggestions shared by the experts helped resolve the issue with the black background appearing grey in your PDF export.

If you’re still facing the problem, please let us know so we can help you further.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

First change your InDesign preferences to Display and Output All Blacks Accurately under Appearance of Black.

Then, if using the CMYK blend space, use a rich black. There are many “recipes” but I use 60C, 40M, 40Y, and 100K. (You could also open Photoshop and take a reading of the background but you need to make sure you are not going over the total ink coverage (TIC) for the method of printing and paper type.)

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Likely this is what is called Yucky Discolored Box Syndrome.

Make sure you are placing RGB graphics into an InDesign document that is Edit > Transparency Blend Space > RGB.

If that doesn’t fix it; export to PDF using a custom Transparency Flattener set to all pixel; not any vector. See Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets > New… and after making an all-pixel flattener, invoke it in the Export PDF (print) dialog box.

Mike Witherell

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