Problem with CMYK profile that converts itself to RGB profile in idesign

Report · Oct 05, 2021

I have a problem in the Indesig. When I insert a photo that I have previously edited in Photoshop for printing (300 DPI, CMYK colors), the Indesign displays the photo in the RGB profile at 72 DPI. How is this possible? It does this with the last current version 15.1.4. even with an older version of Indesign. How i can fix it?

Report · Oct 05, 2021

How do you know it uses that exact profile - where does it say that and which exact profile is it? How can you even tell, since CMYK to RGB conversion is mostly very hard to see?

how do you know it's reduced to 72 ppi, where does it say that?

In Response To Test Screen Name · Oct 05, 2021

This information you can find out if you look at one particular photo in the bindings folder and here you can see in what profile and resolution the photo is. This shows me and the footgraphy was saved in CMYK/300DPI profile

In Response To defaultsxlm7c7yjrrc · Oct 05, 2021

See your Effective PPI is 362.

This is the one to pay attention to.

For example a 72ppi image placed at 24% of it's original size would be 300ppi.

72/24*100 = 300

As for the RGB side of it - it must have a RGB profile associated with it somewhere, perhaps already embedded in the image.

In Response To Eugene Tyson · Oct 05, 2021

It is an RGB picture. That's what InDesign it's telling you (Google translator is magic!). Somehow you think it's CMYK, but it is not.

Anyway, if you are going to send the file to print as a PDF and you use the PDF/X-4 preset properly, you do not need to convert the image to CMYK in Photoshop.The Colour Engine (called Adobe CMS) of InDesign will do the conversion to CMYK properly as well.

Best regards

In Response To defaultsxlm7c7yjrrc · Oct 05, 2021

Select the link in the Links panel, choose Edit Original from the Links flyout menu, and show a capture of the image’s title bar in Photoshop.

Report · Oct 05, 2021

I think maybe you used Export in Photoshop to save the JPEG. Do not. Use SAVE AS.

Report · Oct 05, 2021

I would recommend you don't export your file as JPG anyway, unless you have a specific need to. Since you have the full working file, you should Save As in a lossless format like TIFF, and let InDesign deal with reducing the size of it and compacting when you create a PDF, rather than recompressing an already lossy format.

You could leave it as PSD format as well, but that can get a bit unwieldly if you a many-layered coimplex file... hence saving as a separate TIFF

In Response To Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Oct 05, 2021

Saving as jpeg with maximum quality will be fine

I don't notice any difference in saving as tiff or Psd.

Typically the artifacts are already there, saving as another file format only makes for larger files and more files to store.

I'd leave it as rgb and place that.

Only converting to cmyk on export from InDesign.

Unless there's a color critical reason to save it as a cmyk file, like matching a cmyk color or black background.

Every situation is different, but typically I would not bother resaving jpgs as tiff or Psd.

In Response To Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Oct 05, 2021

You could leave it as PSD format as well, but that can get a bit unwieldly if you a many-layered coimplex file... hence saving as a separate TIFF

Hi Brad @ Roaring Mouse , I’m not sure you have to bother with the TIFF copy—as long as the PSD is linked, even a very large file is going to be represented by a small proxy preview in the layout. This is a placed 1.3GB PSD with 20+ layers and the ID file saves to disk as only 2MB:

In Response To rob day · Oct 05, 2021

Oh, I'm on board with all of that. I'm also an RGB workflow guy, but if the file already is CMYK, might as well stay there.

In Response To Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Oct 05, 2021

Right, looks like it may have been CMYK, but got converted back to RGB on a Photoshop Export—the DocumentRGB and 72ppi usually indicates a Save for Web or Export. I don’t see a way to Export a CMYK JPEG as CMYK from PS, it has to be a Save As.

In Response To Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Oct 05, 2021

I see what you mean. Thanks

Report · Oct 05, 2021

Just in case it isn’t clear—if you use Photoshop’s Export to JPEG or the legacy Save For Web, a CMYK image will get converted to RGB and its output dimension metadata will get stripped (72ppi). There is no need for the JPEG conversion—just place the PSD file.

Also as Eugene suggests, you don’t have to make the conversion to CMYK in Photoshop, the same CMYK conversion can happen on an export to PDF from InDesign by setting the Output Destination to a CMYK profile