Everything in black disappears in PDF exported from InDesign

Question

Hi,I've designed a book cover for print with a solid black back and spine and an image on the front with black text over it. Yesterday it exported just fine to PDF. Today, all the bits that should be black are white. I can export the cover as a jpg and all the colours show up the way I'm seeing it on screen, but the PDF does not show the black. All I can see is the image on the front cover and space where the text should be.I've made no changes to any of my preferences; color is CYMK; true black. Any idea what's going on? I've a deadline. Thanks,Averill

Luke Jennings3 · Accepted Answer

Okay. It is one of those mistakes almost everyone makes... once. 🙂

Your other glitches sound like a Preferences issue. I'd also double-check all your PDF export settings; easy to bump some obscure one and end up with bizarre results.

Have you changed your Acrobat Accessibility settings? Here is a link to a related Acrobat discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/background-color-not-showing-up-in-pdf/m-p/13543091#M513521

James Gifford—NitroPress · Answer

Did you use black as a 'Paper' color? Change the 'Paper' color in swatches to black?

Won't work. Effectively, 'Paper' is an invisible color meant to represent the color of the stock on which you're going to print. It doesn't export.

For a black background, you must lay in a graphics rectangle and give it a solid black color. There are a number of other details here, such as specifying a rich black instead of a dead black, and allowing bleeds for trimming, and such... but you have to provide the black background as an element. And turn Paper back to white while you're at it. 🙂

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