Publish online color management issues - washed-out colors

[El_Jeffe]

I created an InDesign template for my printed photography portfolio, which worked great, no problems. Now I'm trying to share a PDF of the portfolio I created with contact around the country who I can't meet in person. I've figured out how to create a PDF with the correct sizing and layout of pages versus spreads.

The PDF I exported appears to have correct color management, colors look the way the should. However I'm interested in using Adobe's Publish Online as it looks like it may be simpler for my clients to access, but when I look at the published document on the Adobe site, the colors are all washed out, indicating a color management issue. I'm not sure where the issue is occurring, especially as the PDF's I exported look correct.

Indesign CC 2015, OS 10.11.6 Jpgs placed into Indesign document as sRGB, Color Settings RGB set for sRGB.

Any thoughts appreciated!

[Abhishek Rao]

Hello @annab93325192,

Thank you for the update. Could you please try opening the PDF export in Acrobat and let us know how it appears? In the meantime, I will discuss this with our product team.

Thanks,
Abhishek Rao

[rob day]

I attempted to replicate the issue but found that both the Publish Online view and the exported PDF displayed the same colors correctly

Hi @Abhishek Rao , did you test the sample InDesign file I attached in my earlier message? When the page has no transparency I see the bug in both Firefox and Chrome on OSX. The circled swatches have the same RGB values and should match—they do in a PDF:

[rob day]

1 - Yes - my transparency blend is set to RGB

Hi @annab93325192 , Does your spread also have a transparent object? If not try adding a frame with 0% opacity somewhere on the page. Also make sure your document has sRGB as the RGB profile assignment—see Edit>Assign Profiles... (not Color Settings).

[Abhishek Rao]

Hello @rob day,

Thank you for your time and patience on this issue. We’ve shared all the details with our product team, and it turns out that a bug has already been reported for this. They are actively working on a fix.

We’ll keep you updated as soon as there’s any progress.

Thank you,
Abhishek Rao

[rob day]

We’ll keep you updated as soon as there’s any progress.

It’s been around for awhile, this thread was started in 2017. Uwe’s transparent object fix with an RGB Blend Space seems to be a good work around.

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi @annab93325192 ,

the workaround to solve this issue is:

put an object with transparency on the spread. Could be a rectangle on the pasteboard with opacity set to less than 100%. See my post with Rob's document attached where I added transparency this way:

PublishOnlineTest-2024_TransparencyOnSpread.indd

No need to have a fill or a stroke on the rectangle. Also set the transparency blend space to RGB.

From my German InDesign with a rectangle on the pasteboard selected and transparency applied (opacity reduced to 50% through the Effects panel):

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[annab93325192]

IT WORKED!

Thankyou so much @rob day My work now looks as it should. 

Hopefully the team at Adobe can work on this bug @Laubender