Colors converting PDF export

[Lucile Alabama]

I have been working with InDesign for many years.

I mainly create magazines and art books.

Until now, I have always converted images to CMYK / 300dpi in Photoshop to ensure the correct profile for printing.

However, I will soon be working on an art book with a very large number of photos, all provided by a photographer in RGB.

I am wondering if InDesign has the ability to correctly convert the profile of all images during a high-quality PDF export.

This would save a significant amount of work beforehand.

[Willi Adelberger]

Adobe CC installs the Adobe Color Engine once for all programs, With the same settings you get in InDesign and Photoshop the very same result upon color converting, or with printing aRGB to CMYK from Photoshop. In Photoshop you should turn on the CMYK proof preview.

Since 1999 Adobe recommends to use RGB images in InDesign.

[Lucile Alabama]

Thanks for your answer Willi,
The thing is I have worked in the past with printers who didn't accept my files because I didn't convert in CMYK before exporting the file.

[Willi Adelberger]

When you deliver CMYK-PDFs the printer cannot distinguish where you have converted them in your workflow. Never deliver open INDD files, give the printer a final PDF according to their standards.

[Lucile Alabama]

Thanks a lot for your answer. 

[Bill Silbert]

In my many years working in advertising I found that quite often clients would take charge of the production of all print jobs and insist on all native InDesign Photoshop and Illustrator files being delivered. They further required that we convert all RGB to CMYK prior to delivery. The reason for this was so that they could see colors used closer to how they would eventually be printed using four color process. This was to prevent RGB images and page layouts that may have been out of gamut to provide a surprise somewhere down the line. All of this was also done because the clients would then find the cheapest possible printer—anywhere on the planet—to print the jobs. Many of these printers would certainly not employ the professional standards that would be needed for them to make any color conversions on their own. I bring all of this up to show that there is no one-size-fits-all way to release print jobs. It all depends on the situation at hand. The best advice that I can impart is to communicate with either the client or printer as to the way that they need the job to be released.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Lucile Alabama

As long as a correct profile will be assigned to the RGB photo - you have nothing to worry about.

Of course, it would be great, if you can get your hands on the profile of the printer. 

And, of course, you need to have your monitor calibrated 😉 

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

If you intend to pre-convert to CMYK, obtain the profile from the printer that they will use for the job, especially if they have a  custom one for each of their specific press situations (we did for our presses). They may also just say to use a standard "off the shelf" profile, e.g one of the FOGRA or GRACOL ones, but DON'T pre-convert before you know what they want. If you don't know, you would be better off saving an uncoverted PDF with tagged profiles included; if they have a modern RIP, it will handle this just peachy and get you the best reproduction possible, but this depends on the experience of the specific printer. Even some supposedly "high end" commercial printers are dumb on color management, sad to say.