Participating Frequently

Question

Black image on a black box don't match

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
September 29, 2024
5 replies
4133 views

I have an image of a person silhouetted against a black background. The image itself is grayscale and I've made sure the black parts are 100% black.

When I place this image against a black background in InDesign, the two different black backgrounds look different. I don't understand why, or how to fix this.

I'm printing this on an at-home laser printer and the blacks are showing up as different tones. But even when I export the layout as a PDF, you can see different blacks in the resulting PDF.

Any help would be appreciated!

Sample.pdf

Print

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Is your image truly grayscale or and RGB/CMYK image with color removed?

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

M

mrsubtractionAuthor

Participating Frequently

It's truly grayscale. It's set to Image > Mode > Grayscale.

I'm stumped.

M

mrsubtractionAuthor

Participating Frequently

What would cause the color breakdown?

The image in the PDF is a Grayscale with an embedded profile, so with Coated GRACoL set as your Simulation profile the image would convert from the Gamma 2.2 gray profile to Coated GRACoL CMYK, which would always convert to 4-color (try it in Photoshop).

I’m actually not sure how the PDF’s Grayscale image gets a embedded profile out of InDesign? All of the PDF/X presets put grayscales on the CMYK black plate, so grayscales export as Device gray or Device CMYK (no profile) and would stay on the black plate. Maybe @mrsubtraction could let us know what Export preset was used?

@rob day This is a bit beyond my depth but here is a screen grab of the Export dialog box as I used it. Does it offer any clues?

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

The other thing you could do is to remove the profile from the image in Photoshop (Assign Profile > Don't Color Manage)

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

Also: what is your setting for Handling of Blacks in ID's prefs?

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

Your background colour is a simple box defined as 0C 0M 0Y 100K

Your image, although greyscale, has an assigned ICC profile (Generic Grey Gamma 2.2)

What is happening is that your image is being color managed and converted to CMYK according to your Color Settings and Color Management policies, converting it to a mix of CMYK, while your box is being left alone.

What are your specific Color settings? and what have you used for PDF export re: Output tab?

If you are printing directly from InDesign, what are the Color Management settings in the print dialog?

Is your printer B/w or color? Postscript/non-PS?

The fix may be a simple change in your export settings.

M

mrsubtractionAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the response Brad.

I tried going into the image doc in Photoshop and setting Assign Profile > Don't Coolor Manage.

In InDesign, I have Appearance of Black set as Output All Blacks as Rich Black. I tried setting it to Output All Blacks Accurately too.

To generate the PDF I'm using InDesign's Export feature and selecting Adobe PDF as the output type.

My printer is a black and white HP LaserJet Pro. Printing directly from InDesign (as well as printing from the output PDF via Preview app on macOS) produces the same result: two different blacks.

So I'm a bit stumped. Everything I try produces the same result. Any further help would be much appreciated!

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

"My printer is a black and white HP LaserJet Pro"

Specifically, which model? It makes a difference if you are printing to a Postscript driver or a non-PS (RGB-based) printer.

When printingh directly from InDesign, what does your print dialog show in the Color Mangement section?...

Also: when you export a PDF, which setting are you using? specifically in the Output section:

Derek Cross

Community Expert

Open the image in Photoshop and sample the black part of the image with the Eyedropper tool, add the additional bacground and colour it with the new black you've sampled from the image, then Place it as a PSD file in InDesign.

M

mrsubtractionAuthor

Participating Frequently

That worked, thank you Derek. I wish I could get the actual spot black in InDesign to match the image black though. This seems like an unnecessary workaround.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded