RGB or CMYK photos

[ChantalRichards]

When inserting photographs into a magazine for print, should they be embedded with cmyk or rgb?

[BobLevine · Accepted solution]

RGB.

[Steve Werner]

Bob is correct. Also, for professional work, you would choose File > Place to link images. You should not embed them.

[ChantalRichards]

yes always use file>place 

thank you

[Willi Adelberger]

Use RGB images with an valid color profile. 
Do not embed them, link them as external files. 

[ChantalRichards]

thank you Willi xx

[rob day]

Hi @ChantalRichards , keep in mind the images will have to be converted to CMYK somewhere in the workflow using the correct press profile. The conversion to the destination profile can happen in Photoshop, on an export to PDF, or at output when the page is RIP’d. Doing it in Photoshop is less flexible (the final press profile might be different if you change printers or paper stock after the layout is complete), and more time consuming.

Also, placing RGB or CMYK doesn’t guarantee the best color output. In either case your InDesign document needs to have the final CMYK press profile assigned (Edit>Assign Profiles...) for accurate output conversions, and soft proofing (Overprint Preview on).

[ChantalRichards]

hi Rob. ok so when i send the magazine to print as pdf - the images will convert to CMYK?  and must check (edit>assign profiles). not sure i've ever done that.  
The problem i see is that when i use downloaded Adobe stock images - they look really good when printed. When i use my own photos or those submitted by readers they are always a bit lousy, blurry and loss of colour. .. don't know how to fix that or what settings a stock photo would have.. do you know?!  (thank you so much for your time xxx)

[rob day · Accepted solution]

ok so when i send the magazine to print as pdf - the images will convert to CMYK?

Your Export>Output settings determine what happens to the color on a PDF export. You can use the LinkInfo panel to get color and resolution info on your placed images. The default PDF/X-4 preset sets the Output to No Color Conversion and Includes All Profiles. In this case I can see my image mode is RGB with the AdobeRGB profile assigned—this image will export to the PDF unchanged—RGB with AdobeRGB embedded at 365ppi. The conversion to CMYK would be handled by the magazine at output

If I want to force the conversion of all color to CMYK at export, I can set the Destination profile to any CMYK profile—it should almost always be Document CMYK, which is the document’s assigned CMYK profile (the final press profile). In this case the image would be converted from AdobeRGB to Coated GRACoL on the export.