Color issues in Mountain Lion with Acrobat Pro

[twsphoto]

I'm not sure I'm in the right forum, but here it goes.

Since upgrading my OS to Mountain Lion, I've noticed  when viewing PDFs output from InDesign 5.5 that once in Acrobat Pro the colors look muted and inaccurate.  I never saw this in Snow Leopard, hence my posting.  Color in InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop CS5.5 seem just fine, it's only when a PDF is viewed in Acrobat that I see this muted color issue. 

What I'm concerned with is are these problems when viewing only, or is the PDF color range itself screwed up?  I do prepress work and am using an Eizo CG241 display, CS5.5 and Acrobat Pro 10.1.4.

Thanks!

[JThoeming]

Yes - I confirm with aktivomat and the reply from thorx1308 ... colorfaker doesn't work anymore under Yosemite and after two years its now time Adobe ...

Hopefully, Adobe will fix this damn bug with the next (full) Version (if they are testing with hardware calibrated Monitors - it seem they dont) and are able to have a look how InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop work - in all these Apps colormanagement work fine!!

Greets

Joerg

[anonymorse]

So 2 years down the line, have we had any official word from Adobe? It would be nice to know this has at least been Acknowledged...?

Checking accurate colour in our PDFs is integral for our workflow, and with a pending OS and software update coming for us this is very concerning....

[Was DYP]

So is this now fixed in the new version of Acrobat?

[JThoeming]

‌Yes - at least - with Acrobat Pro DC the color issue seem to be fixed ...

[Dov Isaacs]

Our belief, based on both our own tests and feedback from users with wide-gamut, calibrated monitors on Macs, is that the color issues have been fixed for Acrobat DC.

              - Dov

[jmvdigital]

‌I have recently upgraded to Acrobat DC and have found that InDesign and Acrobat are not matching for me. Can anyone confirm the bug has been fixed or if I'm having other issues?

I'm on a calibrated 30" NEC monitor, color setting are the same for both applications. Even softproofing the same file with the same proof profile shows an onscreen difference. The only difference for me is that this slight dinference is also visible in print. I'm very color management savvy but cannot figure this out.

[jmvdigital]

I partially figured out my issue.

Colors do match between Acrobat DC and InDesign, if your IND document and PDF have the same color profile. In my case, the IND document working (and transparency) space are GRACoL, as is my exported PDF. However, when trying to print or soft proof from Acrobat DC and InDesign, the colors stop matching. If I soft proof using my printer profile, InDesign will NOT match Acrobat DC unless the check box for "Preserve CMYK Numbers" in the Custom proof dialog options is left unchecked. Acrobat DC has no such option. Upon printing or soft proofing, it appears that Acrobat forces a CMYK conversion and will not pass through the CMYK values.

For me, that means that I can't get prints or soft proofs to match between the two applications unless I force InDesign to convert CMYK color numbers, which is undesirable.

Am I missing something? Or is this a shortcoming of Acrobat DC?

[Dov Isaacs]

The issues that plagued Acrobat 11 with regards to color rendition on screen have been resolved as far as we know with Acrobat DC.

On the other hand, Acrobat does take color management very seriously. If your content is tagged as GRACol but you are printing / proofing to a device with some other profile, yes, CMYK to C'M'Y'K' conversions will occur both during print (and even Output Preview). However when printing, you can preserve pure CMYK colorants via the Advanced Print Setup options accessible from the Acrobat print dialog. Go to the Color Management tab. Checking the Preserve Black option preserves pure black (i.e. CMYK=0,0,0,k) when doing a CMYK to C'M'Y'K' conversion during print. Checking the Preserve CMYK Primaries option  preserves any of the pure colorants (i.e., CMYK=(c,0,0,0), CMYK=(0,m,0,0), CMYK=(0,0,y,0), and CMYK=(0,0,0,k) during a CMYK to C'M'Y'K' conversion during print.

           - Dov

[jmvdigital]

Dov, I have tried checking the "Preserve Primaries" box, but the proof output looks the same.

The conundrum is that the print output from Indesign is a dead ringer for visually matching a print I have of the document from a professional offset printer. The print from Acrobat appears desaturated/duller that is noticeable in brighter more saturated solid colors. The Acrobat output is noticeably different from both the Indesign and professional prints.

On the other hand, turning off color management in Advanced print dialog (in order to prevent the CMYK number conversion) in Acrobat results in the printer/proofer profile never being applied (even if it's specified under the ColorSync tab in the print driver)... and then the color is WAY off. There is no way to get the output from InDesign to match the output from Acrobat, and similarly, there is no way to get the output from Acrobat to match what the pro print looks like because of the desaturation of the CMYK conversion it does.

[Dov Isaacs]

Justin,

What happens if you set the profile for printing to GRACol to match the CMYK in your document?

The irony here is that we very often get complaints that printing from InDesign yields the wrong colors and that printing from PDF via Acrobat or submitting the PDF file to a direct PDF RIP solves the problem.

One additional recommendation.

Why don't you try exporting your PDF from InDesign using the PDF/X-4 joboptions? That just might solve your problems completely. Try that and let me know whether that works! PDF/X-4 is what we most strongly recommend for reliable color and reliable PDF print publishing workflows.

         - Dov

[Mark Muse]

Justin and Dov,

Why preserve CMYK numbers when printing to an output device other than a platemaker? What matters in inkjet print is an accurate simulation of the final offset printing. Who cares if the CMY red is converted to MYK (not to mention light M, Light K, etc.) for the inkjet print? Your original file is unchanged. It is the accuracy of the simulation that counts.

Or am I missing something here?

Mark Muse

[jmvdigital]

Dov... Sorry, I just saw your reply. I have done all of your recommendations. I almost always use PDF/X-4 and GRACoL for all of my print files.

Mark... The issue is really that it doesn't seem possible to print from Acrobat and InDesign, and get the same visual output (regardless of the CMYK numbers). In my case, I'm printing to a CMYK printer that I have calibrated, and use it as a proofer before sending files off for larger print runs. So if I take my PDF file and print it from Acrobat, I can't get the same printed output as I do when printing from InDesign. Furthermore, I don't know which is "correct." The color output when printing from InDesign is closer to what my print vendor outputs, so I'm inclined to use it. But what if I get a file from another source and don't have the InDesign original... then I can't accurately proof it?

[JThoeming]

The color issue is solved with Acrobat DC

[jmvdigital]

Actually, it's not. At least for me.

[JThoeming]

hmm - with the same color management out of InDesign or Acrobat DC I get the same (visual) output on my cmyk printer ... I use ISO profiles as recommended by ECI (eci.org) and give my projects only to certified german printer's for very close results ...

Joerg

[Dov Isaacs]

There were numerous answers on other threads.

           - Dov