Printing black page background color issue

[worriedleopard]

Hi everyone, I need help QUICKKKK, but I am working on a magazine to be printed through a printing service. I have the background of one of my pages as a black color C:20 M20 Y:20 K:100 and I have png elements on top of it. When I print it to test it out on my regular printer from my laptop the "transparent" background of the png elements come out to be a darker black color than the background. 

I read somewhere on here to try printing it using the advances printing setting " print as image" and that fixed my problem except the white text on top of the black was now kind of blue. 

I am looking to fix the blue text issue as well as i am worried that when sending it to the printer the page will show up with the dark boxes around my elements. Is it just a problem with my printer and laptop and wont be a problem then or is it something I need to fix before sending it out? I have to send it out tonight eeeeeek. plz helppp thank u ❤️ 

[Rene Andritsch]

Assemble the background and the logo in Photoshop and flatten it to be on the safe side. Sometimes printshops don’t support transparency. Then place the file in InDesign, export according to the printers PDF specifications and there should be no problem with that page.
Sidenote: Usually those color discrpancies are a matter of the cheap printers compared to higher end production equipment. Mostly they do not support PostScript.

[worriedleopard]

thank you so much I didnt think of doing that !

[Rene Andritsch]

You are welcome. Please mark the answer as correct if it solved your issue. Thanks!

[rob day]

Hi @worriedleopard , Also the PNG format’s color space is RGB—it has no support for CMYK. With image formats you can accurately sample the background color of a placed file to create a matching (RGB for PNG) background color:

If you open the Separation Preview panel, you can view the document CMYK separtion values for the PNG and background color:

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

I'm also going to say this is just an anomaly with your specific printer.

Were you directly printing from ID or using a PDF?

In any case, if you create a Print PDF for your printing service, if there was an issue, it should show up there in Output Preview.

[rob day]

C:20 M20 Y:20 K:100 would be a built CMYK color, and PNGs can only be RGB, so the color managed conversion of 0|0|0 RGB black to CMYK would never match 20|20|20|100.

If it’s an composite printer with an RGB driver, the conversion of 20|20|20|100 CMYK to RGB might not be absolute 0|0|0 black—depends on the assigned CMYK profile and the Appearance of Black Printing / Exporting setting. In any case the eyedropper accurately samples placed image pixels.

[Mike Witherell]

You might also simply try making an all-raster Transparency Flattener custom setting, and applying that during your export. What you are describing is known as "Yucky Discolored Box Syndrome" and you can google plenty more about that.