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Ellen287430
Ellen287430
New Participant
March 30, 2019
Answered

Image saturation suddenly varies between Indesign and Lightroom

  • March 30, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 14834 views

I am working on a project in Indesign and flipping back and forth between it and Lightroom. Everything was fine at first, all images looked good in Indesign, then something happened and now all of the images are overly saturated in Indesign. I don't remember changing any settings, but may have hit a hot key that changed it? Any help is appreciated! (First image is the Indesign photo, second is Lightroom)

      Correct answer Ellen287430

      Thanks all for your help. Turns out it was an even simpler fix than I thought:

      Instead of hitting Shift + W to view my document in Presentation mode, I accidentally hit Shift + E which toggles GPU mode. In trying to figure out the problem I accidentally hit Shift + E again, turning  GPU mode off and returning the photos to their original colors. I don't totally understand what GPU is or why I would want it, so any comments on that would be appreciated as well!

      4 replies

      F
      fab-design
      Known Participant
      November 26, 2020

      Thank you so much Ellen! I've been going crazy over this for months!!

        Ellen287430
        Ellen287430AuthorCorrect answer
        New Participant
        April 3, 2019

        Thanks all for your help. Turns out it was an even simpler fix than I thought:

        Instead of hitting Shift + W to view my document in Presentation mode, I accidentally hit Shift + E which toggles GPU mode. In trying to figure out the problem I accidentally hit Shift + E again, turning  GPU mode off and returning the photos to their original colors. I don't totally understand what GPU is or why I would want it, so any comments on that would be appreciated as well!

          Lukas Engqvist
          Lukas Engqvist
          Community Expert
          April 3, 2019

          Ok. GPU is the Graphics Processor, this is the part of the computer that prepares images for the screen. Depending on your hardware this can have limitations that make your graphics display faster, but during this tech transition phase with some loss of quality in certain cases.

          Lukas Engqvist
          Lukas Engqvist
          Community Expert
          March 31, 2019

          As Rob describes it is most likely a missmatch in ICC profiles, and/or assumed differences in ICC profiles. (Personally I am a bit on the side to avoid ProPhoto since it may mean I am working with theoretical colours that cannot be displayed on most monitors today)

          rob day
          rob day
          Community Expert
          March 31, 2019

          Personally I am a bit on the side to avoid ProPhoto since it may mean I am working with theoretical colours that cannot be displayed on most monitors today

          Small RGB spaces like sRGB have the opposite problem—they usually clip the CMYK print gamut. CMYK and RGB spaces normally intersect (CMYK doesn't necessarily fit entirely inside of the sRGB color space), so there is a large chunk of the printable CMYK space that is outside of the smaller sRGB gamut, which you can’t get at when editing with sRGB.

          So sRGB might be better if you can’t get a contract proof (really ?!), and you are outputting blind. But you have to be willing to work with the extra small gamut where sRGB and CMYK intersect.

          Here's default SWOP Coated compared to sRGB (the white plot)—you can see the significant parts of the cyan/blue and yellow CMYK gamut you give up when working in sRGB.

          Lukas Engqvist
          Lukas Engqvist
          Community Expert
          March 31, 2019

          Rob, I am not saying sRGB is the ideal. Just saying I would not go with ProPhoto. Personally I use sRGB where possible because, but if I need a fuller Gamut there are ECI RGB or AdobeRGB as better alternatives, and where necessary it is possible to work in the CMYK of the output process.

          rob day
          rob day
          Community Expert
          March 30, 2019

          It looks like the bottom image has sRGB or a monitor profile assigned, and the top image has the same RGB values, but with ProPhoto RGB or some other wide gamut RGB profiled assigned.

          If you place an RGB image saved with no embedded color profile, the InDesign document’s assigned profile is used to color manage the placed image. Check your document's assigned profile (Edit>Assign Profiles...), and also select the image and check its profile in the Links Info panel.

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