Why is my black vector showing as 4CP in Indesign?

Hi,

did you saved your Illustrator document with a ICC profile embedded and is InDesign set to keep embedded profiles?

If thats the case and they differ then there is a CMYK conversion happening.
Save your Illustrator file without profile (there's a checkbox in the Save As Dialog).


I never found the corresponding menu item (or... why is there none?) of setting profiles for PDF/AI files like you can with images but in scripting there is a cmykVectorPolicy which you can set. 

Hi @haleyblairjones , Can you attach the .AI file rather than a screen capture?

What format did you actually save the Illustrator file as prior to importing into InDesign? If you saved it as a png then the file would have become raster instead of vector and would be a CMYK or RGB file depending on the Document Color Mode of the Illustrator file. If this was the case and you still have vector version of the Illustrator file then save it as Illustrator's native file format of .ai and then import it into InDesign.

4c output of black from ai can happen:

1. The AI file has a different cmyk profile as the INDD. The CMYK policy is set to convert to destination. Better would be to ignore the profile.
2. The AI file is an RGB file or was created as RGB and converted to CMYK.