I have been trying to export a PDF intended for web purposes with the colours it displays in InDesign without overprint. I have been tearing my hair out for the last six hours googling how to disable overprinting and preserve proof colours while exporting to PDF. I have already done the following with to avail:uncheck overprint black swatch at 100% in preferencesturn off overprint stroke and fill in atributes tried dozens and dozens of various exporting setttings with transparency flattener, different pdf types, etc. etc.Exported PDF always looks like this, with overprint:I want it to look like this, without overprint:Any help is greatly appreciated.

Participant

Answered

Disable overprint, exporting PDF for web use

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
July 13, 2022
4 replies
2851 views

I have been trying to export a PDF intended for web purposes with the colours it displays in InDesign without overprint. I have been tearing my hair out for the last six hours googling how to disable overprinting and preserve proof colours while exporting to PDF. I have already done the following with to avail:

uncheck overprint black swatch at 100% in preferences
turn off overprint stroke and fill in atributes
tried dozens and dozens of various exporting setttings with transparency flattener, different pdf types, etc. etc.

Exported PDF always looks like this, with overprint:

I want it to look like this, without overprint:

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Import and export

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Correct answer rob day

Hi @citrusmango , Try setting your Export>Output tab as below—if this doesn’t work can you share the file?:

Here is the exported PDF opened into Chrome compared to ID with OP off:

rob day

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi @citrusmango , Try setting your Export>Output tab as below—if this doesn’t work can you share the file?:

Here is the exported PDF opened into Chrome compared to ID with OP off:

rob day

Community Expert

Here‘s an example using colors similar to yours:

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

What I think I see is absolutely identical except the green is lighter in the first one. I don't see the connection to overprint at all. You mention proof... do you mean that when you proof it as CMYK, the colours darken? They would. But that isn't relevant to screen viewing the PDF. If you want different colours in an interactive PDF, then use different colours... but I probably misunderstand.

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citrusmangoAuthor

Participant

They are not identical. The colours change once I export it to PDF. The darker one is what I see when I over preview overprint on. The lighter one is what I see when preview overprint is off. I want to export my file and preserve the version with overprint off.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Yes, that's what I mean. They are identical except for the screen colours.These are not "versions". Overprint preview ON changes the file to CMYK and simulates overprint preview; the overprinting part isn't what affects things, it's the converting to CMYK.

1. Design in the colour you want to see.

2. Design in RGB, preferably with the sRGB profile for maximum portability.

3. Export as interactive PDF.

Geоrge

Legend

Your two pictures looks similar.

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

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citrusmangoAuthor

Participant

Yes, the colours are naturally similar because the darker one is just a result of the overprint. They are similar but not the same and I want to export my PDF with the lighter colours without the overprint.

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

If you want to export a PDF for Web use, export as Interactive PDF. That is the export option developed for web PDFs. Export is in sRGB with minimal file size. The expression interactive is misleading in my humble opinion.