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Mystic_positivity5CBF
Participant
June 28, 2021
Answered

Dull colours when I have RGB on

  • June 28, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 2542 views

I have RGB transparency setting on in my indesign document. But all the colours seem to be working in CYMK. When I create a new box or anything and I choose a colour, it massively dulls the colour down. I cant figure out why as I have the RGB setting on. Any suggestions?

Correct answer rob day

InDesign’s Color Picker is contextual—the color you picked is dependent on where your cursor is in the dialog. If your cursor is in one of the C, M, Y, or K fields the chosen color will be CMYK—note the Add CMYK Swatch button in your capture. If you want the picked color to be RGB, set your cursor in one of the R, G, or B fields. The radio buttons control the picker’s Color Space Views. 

 

2 replies

rob day
Community Expert
rob dayCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 28, 2021

InDesign’s Color Picker is contextual—the color you picked is dependent on where your cursor is in the dialog. If your cursor is in one of the C, M, Y, or K fields the chosen color will be CMYK—note the Add CMYK Swatch button in your capture. If you want the picked color to be RGB, set your cursor in one of the R, G, or B fields. The radio buttons control the picker’s Color Space Views. 

 

    J E L
    Community Expert
    J E LCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 28, 2021

    @rob day It looks like her color picker is in the RGB space though?

    J E L
    Community Expert
    J E LCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 28, 2021

    @Mystic_positivity5CBF Here is a video I just made to show picking colors from an image that is CMYK and another that is RGB. The color blocks look the same on my screen. What are you trying that is different?

     

     

    J E L
    Community Expert
    J E LCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 28, 2021

    @Mystic_positivity5CBF A few ideas: have you checked in Bridge (Edit > Color Settings) to see if your Creative Cloud applications are synchronized using the same color settings across all? Did you click an Out of Gamut warning when you created the Swatch (yellow triangle with exclamation point)? Checked your GPU settings?

      rob day
      Community Expert
      rob dayCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 29, 2021

      Sync’ing or changing Color Settings wouldn’t normally change the appearance of an existing document’s color. The appearance of document RGB and CMYK colors are dependent on the document assigned profiles (Edit>Assign Profiles...) and not the Color Settings’ Working Spaces, which could be different. The exception would be a document with no profile assignments—then the profile fall back is to the Working Spaces.

       

      There are some cases where an out-of-gamut RGB fill or stroke would display as the nearest CMYK color. If the Transparency Blend Space is set to CMYK and there is any transparent object on the page (Lucy has it set to RGB), Overprint or Separation Preview are turned on, or Proof Colors with a Proof Setup set to CMYK is turned on. In any of these cases the mode of the color remains unchanged—the CMYK display is just a print soft proof.

       

      If you want to check the actual Color Mode of a fill, select the object and open the Color Panel, which lists the mode and values for unnamed colors, or the name and values if the color is a saved swatch:

       

       

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