Color looks washed out in InDesign

[yosra5FFB]

Hello everyone,

I'm working on my portfolio and I'm having an annoyingly unsolvable issue...

My portfolio is composed of drawings exported either as JPEGs or PNGs from Illustrator and Photoshop. All the colors of the drawings seem fine on InDesign, except for one page only and I don't understand why. What's odd is that when I move the JPEG drawing to another page, the color looks exactly as I want. But when I move it back (it's page 14), the color becomes washed out again. What's maddening is that this happens nowhere else on the rest of the pages of InDesign, except for 14. I've tried to play arround with the color management after reading some forums, but it still doesn't work. Can I get some help with this please? Thank you very much!! By the way, I believe I have InDesign 2022.

[Bill Silbert]

What happens if rather than moving the jpeg from one page to another you reimport it onto the page that's giving the problem? Also, are you importing your graphics through File>Place or are you copying and pasting? If you are copying and pasting (which is not the accepted way of importing graphics) then please try placing instead.

All that being said, however, this is a very weird problem. It seems possible that there is something wrong with the file itself. In which case you could try exporting the file as an IDML and then opening that file with your version of InDesign. This can cure some corruption in a file. You might also want to try creating a new file with the same dimensions as the current one and using the "thumbnail drag" technique to move the contents of the problem file into a new document. To do this first make sure that the new file is showing in the screen view alongside the original one (they shouldn't be tabbed with one another) and then select all of the pages you want to move in the Pages Panel and then drag them out of the Pages Panel and onto the new file. You will be asked where you want the files to be displayed (the usual answer is after page one). The pages you've moved will now be part of the new file. This process (like the IDML technique) can also clear up corruption in a file.

[yosra5FFB]

Hello Bill,

Okay, thank you for your speady reply!

The way I insert the JPEGs into InDesign is by pressing Ctrl + d. I don't copy and paste. 
Okay, I will try what you've recommended and will get back here with some updates. Thank you again!

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi @yosra5FFB ,

nothing is wrong with that document!

The "washed-out" version is showing the RGB colors converted to CMYK.

That's InDesign's way to simulate a possible export of the page to e.g. Adobe PDF (Print).

Somewhere on this spread there is transparency and in this case InDesign is forced to show the simulation of CMYK colors. The Transparency Blend Space of this document is set to CMYK. That is default for documents created with Print Intent. Nothing unusual here. Leave it at that if you want to print the document in CMYK at some point in your workflow.

Scroll down to "Blend space":

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/flattening-transparent-artwork.html

But note, that what is said there is a bit misleading:

"If you apply transparency to objects on a spread, all colors on that spread convert to the transparency blend space you’ve chosen (Edit > Transparency Blend Space), either Document RGB or Document CMYK, even if they’re not involved with transparency."

Well. No. All colors do not convert to the transparency blend space. This setting does not change the objects on the page.

Transparency Blend Space will only govern how the colors will be converted when you output a page from your document. E.g. if you Export to PDF (Print) with certain settings.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

[Bill Silbert]

Uwe,

As you say, the colors are only governed by the Transparency Blend Space upon output. I'm not sure how that explains the difference in the onscreen color of the same object within the same document which changes so drastically when moved from one spread to another. I tried to set up a document to duplicate the issue here and was not able to recreate the problem using Transparency Blend Space.

Bill

[yosra5FFB]

Hello Bill and Laubender,

Unfotunately, the "washed out" color remains when I export the Indesign file as a PDF. 

[Laubender]

Hi Bill,

believe me, the difference can be huge.

See this sample where the first spread has no transparency.

Same rectangle with fill color RGB on both spreads:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

[Bill Silbert]

Uwe,

It took me a little while to match your example. The reason: Somehow an imported RGB psd will show a CMYK blend space view even with a transparent object on the page. When I saved the exact same Photoshop file as a jpeg and imported it, it worked exactly the way that you showed.

Bill

[yosra5FFB]

Hello again Bill and Uwe,

So If understand you correctly, the reason the colors are different on this one page is because there is also transparent element on which ultimately affects the way colors appear?

[rob day · Accepted solution]

the colors are different on this one page is because there is also transparent element

Yes Uwe is right—any transparent object triggers the Transparency Blend Space preview. The actual color isn’t changing, just the preview. A placed image without a flattened background layer would qualify as a transparent object.

Also, the out-of-gamut RGB color on a spread with a transparent item will preview unchanged if the Blend Space is set to RGB:

The CMYK blend space forces a CMYK preview even though the color is still RGB:

But even if you set the Blend Space to RGB to get the RGB preview, for print output you should have Overprint preview turned on, which again soft proofs as CMYK

[yosra5FFB]

Hello Rob!!

Thank you very much for your reply! The colors finally appear correct on my page. All I did was set the Transparency Blend Space to RGB instead of CMJN and it worked. Thank you all for your precious help!

[rob day]

Hi @yosra5FFB , I was just repeating, and illustrating Uwe’s post, he had the correct answer. Just be careful, if you are printing the portfolio you still have to turn on Overprint Preview to get an accurate print preview—the color in your first post is not printable.

[yosra5FFB]

I see. And where do I turn on the Overprint Preview?

[rob day]

Look in the View menu. Overprint Preview soft proofs the page in the document’s assigned CMYK space. By default that would be US Web Coated SWOP, which is an offset press profile—-are you having the portfolio printed via offset?

[yosra5FFB]

I see. For now, I only need my portfolio as a digital copy, but I'll remember to verify the settings once I will have to print it.