Image appears lighter when exported to PDF

[Thomas25142036z9uf]

Hello,

I am formatting some packaging for a product, and as part of the design, I have picked the solid colour background of one of the images to use as the background for the whole packaging.

Working in InDesign, the image looks great, and the colours match perfectly. However, upon export, the image seems to lighten, and the background colours no longer match.

My working space is set to Adobe 1998. I am exporting using the stardard "High Quality Print" setting.

This issue does not occur when I embed the 1998 profile, but this is not an option, as our printer handles the colour management.

I have attached an image, the blues should be the same!

Thanks for your help!

[Willi Adelberger]

What PDF viewer do you use?

Is your screen calibrated?

[Thomas25142036z9uf]

Hello,

Both preview and Acrobat show the same. And yes, screen is calibrated.

Thanks

[Willi Adelberger]

What image do you use?

• Image type?
• Color Mode?
• Color Profile?
• Color Management Policy?
• Output Profile?

[Thomas25142036z9uf]

Hello,

TIFF files

RGB

Adobe 1998

Using the standard high quality print, include tagged profiles.

Thanks

[rob day]

This issue does not occur when I embed the 1998 profile, but this is not an option, as our printer handles the colour management.

Hi @Thomas25142036z9uf , How is your printer going to color manage the output without the source color profiles? They will need the RGB images to be profiled in order to make the conversions to their print CMYK space.

[Thomas25142036z9uf]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your reply. The printer rip converts to the profile at it's end. Embeding the colour profile does not allow for printing pure K text etc, which is necessary for our work.

Thanks

[rob day]

Embeding the colour profile does not allow for printing pure K text etc, which is necessary for our work.

AdobeRGB is an RGB profile—any RGB black will get converted into 4-color whether there is a profile embedded or not. RGB objects cannot be color managed without a source profile, which is the reason the RGB color is changing in your PDF.

If you are trying to protect CMYK blacks (e.g. 0|0|0|100 CMYK), export to one of the PDF/X presets—PDF/X-4 will export document CMYK colors like the default [Black] swatch with no embedded profile, but keep the needed source profile embedded with RGB objects.

Also, InDesign documents have RGB and  CMYK profile assignments (see Edit>Assign Profiles for the document assignments). The RGB profile manages native document RGB colors and RGB images with no embedded profile, the CMYK profile manages native CMYK colors and CMYK images with no profile.