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andfrew
andfrew
Participant
July 30, 2019
Question

TIFF gets darker when adding to InDesign

  • July 30, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2796 views

Hey guys, I'm seeing an odd issue where certain Tiffs are added to an InDesign file and they immediately turn much darker than the actual file is when viewed in Photoshop or with the Mac Finder. Any ideas why InDesign would so drastically change the darkness of these Tiffs? Appreciate the help.

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    2 replies

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 30, 2019

    Are the TIFFs grayscale?

    andfrew
    andfrewAuthor
    Participant
    July 30, 2019

    They aren't grayscale.

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 30, 2019

    They aren't grayscale.

    If they are RGB and there is any transparent object on the spread (visible or not), and your document’s Transparency blend space is set to CMYK, the RGB color will preview in the doc’s CMYK space and might change in appearance. If there’s no transparency, but you have Overprint Preview turned on, that would also give you a CMYK preview.

    Dov Isaacs
    Dov Isaacs
    Legend
    July 30, 2019

    Without more particulars, we can only guess as to what is going on. HOWEVER, most likely this is a color management issues. If the TIFF file(s) were saved without the ICC profiles associated with their color space in Photoshop and if the color settings in InDesign (or the document being edited in InDesign) don't match the color settings of Photoshop, differences in color display are to be expected.

    One other possibility is that you placed the images on a page that has transparency effects and that InDesign is displaying the content as if it was converted to CMYK.

              - Dov

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
      andfrew
      andfrewAuthor
      Participant
      July 30, 2019

      Thanks for the quick reply. Diving further, it's happening with JPGs too. And it's happening whether I save the images with the embedded color profile needed by the printer or whether I don't. What settings should I be looking at in InDesign?

      rob day
      Community Expert
      rob dayCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 23, 2019

      Thanks Dov,

      If outputting a CMYK from InDesing is a must (like you stated and the end of your post), how can I make sure that I don't run into any shifts? If I'm being required to output with a GraCol profile, everytime I choose my profile in the Output section, it ends up shifting or getting much darker. Any thoughts? 


      Make sure your document’s assigned CMYK profile is GRACol, and always have Overprint or Separation Preview turned on—that will give you the GRACol soft proof for all pages while you are working in InDesign. If you then Export a PDF/X-4 to Document CMYK (GRACol), the exported PDF's soft proof will match.

       

      Also when you are color correcting RGB images in Photoshop you can do the same without making CMYK conversions. Set Photoshop’s Proof Setup to Coated GRACol and turn on Proof Colors, which will give you a GRACol CMYK preview of the RGB document. You can then color correct the RGB color to be closer to the GRACol CMYK gamut. If the Proof Setup is the default Working CMYK, the Color Settings’s Working CMYK profile is used for the soft proof.

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