PDF for press yields strange colours for duotone image

Question

I imported a grayscale tiff into ID, coloured it with 2 CMYK colours. Nothing fancy or complex.
But when I export the file for press, it looks green and pink - totally unrelated and wrong.
On the left is how it looks in Preview, middle: Acrobat Pro, right: PDF opened in Photoshop.

I need the client to sign off and approve the files, but he will be very confused when he sees green and pink instead of blue and yellow.

I cannot figure out what is going on, and I've tried exporting using various different settings. Going around in circles trying to get this sorted...

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you! 🙂

Frans v.d. Geest · Accepted Answer

You give the answer already yourself: the wrong colours are only in Preview (Mac), that is because 'colouring' involves overprint, something Preview can not show.

rob day · Answer

Hi @TypoMan23 , I can‘t replicate your problem. Try Eporting using the PDF/X-4 preset—I get this with X4 and placing a .PSD grayscale:

Also, Preview is not a reliable PDF viewer—have your client use Acrobat Reader. Also, check your Transparency Blend Space, if this is for Print make sure it is set to CMYK.

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