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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?

      Dov Isaacs
      Dov Isaacs
      Legend
      July 30, 2019

      Are you converting the images to CMYK in Photoshop? That is absolutely not best workflow practice. You are probably dealing with a mismatch between the CMYK color space you are converting to in Photoshop and the default color space in InDesign.

      Generally speaking, best workflow practices is not to ever convert imagery to CMYK at all. Let the RIP do that with PDF/X-4 exported from InDesign. Or, if you have a Luddite printer who doesn't accept anything other than CMYK as handed down to Moses at Mt. Sinai, at least do the conversion when exporting PDF from InDesign, making sure that the CMYK color space specified in the export operation is correct.

                - Dov

      - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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