Remove everything CMYK in a document

[Swedemike]

To keep everything consistent color-wise I want to create documents in Indesign that are 100% RGB without a trace of CMYK, because it is hard to maintains similar colors from other applications. We only work with digital pdf:s that will never be printed, everything we do is web delivery and this will never ever change. But under proof colors it seems to always go back to CMYK no matter how many times I change to SRGB... Is there a way to completely discard of everything CMYK in Indesign? From scratch I always choose web and RGB in every color setting I can find, but HEX-codes still yield slightly different colors between Photoshop and InDesign. A common workflow is using downloadable pdf:s from Freepik that I want to fully convert to RGB, but this behaviour is present even if I create documents from scratch... I want our signature blue color to be identical on our web page, our pdf:s and every other graphic we create... 

[Eugene Tyson]

InDesign supports multiple colour models at the same time, RGB, HEX, CMYK etc. 

The final output is controlled by the user to convert the images to any colour space they wish.

PDF X4a will maintain the colours as they are, if they are RGB, CMYK etc. they stay that way in the PDF.

If you place CMYK images, it will show you the colour of the CMYK proxy (as InDesign generates it's only image preview and doesn't show the actual image). 

For your documents changing your Transparency Blend Space to RGB would be good anyway.

But typically - making a changes with 0 documents open (no documents at all) makes it default for any new document. 

Any previous document will inherit the previous settings. 

So you'd have to change your settings for previous files for each document that haven't changed.

If you tell us more about your workflow maybe a script or something could sit in a startup folder that converts assigns colour profiles and sets the Proof Setup for any document that is opened. 

This would mean that the Script would be active for any and all documents - as you never go to print you wouldn't have an issue. 

But if things changed you'd need to remove the script from your startup folder.

I guess the script could offer an option to apply the settings or not on open that would mitigate any issues of accidentally converting files by mistake. 

But if you can share more of what you need then maybe we can help more. 

@rob day is really good with setups for colour management and possibly offer better advice (when I say possible, I mean definitely 😄 )

[Swedemike]

Thanks a million, Eugene - I learned a lot with this in depth answer, much appreciated! 🙂

I tend to always make sure that Transparency Blend Space is set to RGB, but I am very interested in your suggestion about a script (which I have never dabbled with)... How would a script like that work (and how is it made?)

My workflow most of the time is: I find a gorgeous PSD-template in Freepik where I want to use one or two of the main graphics that I then export as a png (always trying to ensure that all images end up as RGB and not CMYK)... I download other photos and images from Freepik that I want to use and then I import the images and graphics into InDesign and build the final PDF that is exported at the end with all settings poining to RGB...

But if I create a shape in Indesign with the same HEX-color used in Photoshop, there is a SLIGHT difference in color, so I must be missing something... That is why that script you mentioned sounds very interesting...

My goal is to be able to have 100% identical color reproduction in our PDF:s, graphics and webpage, would a script like that fix all my head scratching...? 🙂

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best regards, Michael

[Eugene Tyson]

Is the colour difference in InDesign only - if it is you'd need to look at your Proof Colour setup, that could explain it. 

You're Colour Settings need to be identical between Photoshop and InDesign - I would say. 

The Hex colours might look different as InDesign only previews images with it's own proxy, so what you see in a placed file might not be accurate.

You can use the separations panel to get exact values that are on display. 

If your PDF is different colours from the same Hex values then there's some conversion of colours going on at some point.

So you'll want to make sure your Colour Management is operating the same across applications. 

But again, I'm only talking through my own experience, and wouldn't say this is 'expert' advice, as I haven't dabbled in this thoroughness of colour settings in quite a long time. 

Most of my work is spot colour based so I don't care how it looks on screen as spot colours are matched at printing. 

Anyway - hope it gives some pointers. If there's anything not going well let us know.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Swedemike

What exactly are you producing? Maybe you can do everything in Photoshop? 

You can export PDF from Photoshop. 

[Mike Witherell]

If you are intending an RGB outcome, you would make Edit > Transparency Blend Space > RGB and you would place RGB images into the layout.

But you would NOT turn on Proof Colors. That imitates a CMYK condition, and you would have no reason to do that.

[Mike Witherell]

#target indesign  
//a script to convert CMYK to RGB images, by Mike Witherell, ACE  
//be sure to run this on a copy of your files as it overwrites the originals
  
var doc = app.activeDocument,  
links = doc.links,  
i, link, image;  
  
UpdateAllOutdatedLinks();  
  
for (i = links.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {  
     link = links[i];  
     if (link.status == LinkStatus.NORMAL) {  
          image = link.parent;  
          if (image.space == "CMYK") {  
               CreateBridgeTalkMessage(link.filePath);  
          }  
     }  
}  
  
UpdateAllOutdatedLinks();  
  
//===================== FUNCTIONS ===============================  
function CreateBridgeTalkMessage(imagePath) {  
     var bt = new BridgeTalk();  
     bt.target = "photoshop";  
     bt.body = ResaveInPS.toSource()+"("+imagePath.toSource()+");";  
     bt.onError = function(errObj) {  
          $.writeln("Error: " + errObj.body);  
     }  
     bt.onResult = function(resObj) {}  
     bt.send(30);  
}  
  
function ResaveInPS(imagePath) {  
     var psDoc;  
     app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO;  
     psDoc = app.open(new File(imagePath));  
      psDoc.changeMode(ChangeMode.RGB);  
      psDoc.close(SaveOptions.SAVECHANGES);  
     app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.ALL;  
}  
  
function UpdateAllOutdatedLinks() {  
     var link, c;  
     for (var c = doc.links.length-1; c >= 0; c--) {  
          link = doc.links[c];  
          if (link.status == LinkStatus.LINK_OUT_OF_DATE) link.update();  
     }  
}  

[Swedemike]

Thanks guys!

That script I will try when things calm down work-wise, it could be the magic sauce to make things spot on... And "The Separation Panel" was a brand new acquaintance for me, I will look into that...

I create various digital content for the HR firm I work at, social media posts and a lot of digital Pdf:s that I really prefer to complete in InDesign to get the best result... I have noticed some color differences in videos I create in After Effects and Davinci Resolve as well, but I know that video comes with its own set of bugs and problems and color shifts, so I will keep digging! 

Great replies in this forum! 🙂

[Mike Witherell]

Don't know if this is helpful, but you say you do mostly RGB web-based output. That suggests to me that you sometimes use the Export to PNG and/or Export to JPG. Make sure you do *not* check on the "Simulate Overprint" checkbox. If you do this, the whole image output dims down to a color range limited by CMYK.

[Laubender]

Hi @Swedemike ,

if you do a new document I would start out with a web intent for the new document type.

From my German InDesign showing the legacy New Document dialog:

All standard swatches will be in RGB from the start:

The transparency blend space is defined as Document RGB from the start:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )