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Roger Breton
Roger Breton
Brainiac
November 1, 2023
Answered

Transparency Blend Space is giving me trouble

  • November 1, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 2439 views

I created a new "Print" document using InDesign v19.0 on Win 11.

It automatically inherited current color settings which are RGB = sGRB and CMYK = GRACoL.

I drew three RGB circles on the page, partially overlapped them and used "Overlay" blend mode.

In Photoshop, I did the exact same thing and save as PSD with sRGB embedded ICC profile.

Placed the image in InDesign.

In "theory", the color apperance of these two groups of circles ought to closely look alike?

 

My question is why is there a visual difference between the two elements?
Activating Proof Setup does not solve the problem.

 

Here is a screen capture:

 Here is a link to the Packaged document:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkD78CVR1NBqm91SWA13tUYbjpH6zA?e=aL0UrC

Thank you in advance for your kind help and patience.

 

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer rob day

    Hi @Roger Breton , I think you asked the same here?

     

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/expected-appearance-of-placed-photoshop-rgb-content-in-indesign-cc-2023/m-p/13331476/page/2#M501626

     

    In Photoshop, I did the exact same thing and save as PSD with sRGB embedded ICC profile.

     

    Photoshop files can only have a single color space, so there’s no need for a Transparency Blend Space choice—the sRGB document’s Blending Mode has to be RGB.

     

    InDesign documents can have a mix of objects with different color modes—CMYK, RGB, or Lab—so when color gets flattened on export or output there needs to be a single output space selected, which is the Transparency Blend Space.

     

    If I set InDesign’s Transparency Blend Space to Document RGB (sRGB in your case), both the placed sRGB Photoshop file (which by default has an sRGB blending space) and the native InDesign colors match:

     

     

    They also match if I turn on Overprint/Separation Preview, which shows the conversion to Document CMYK:

     

    Photoshop’s Proof Colors set to Working CMYK does the same. Here the Working CMYK space is GRACoL with the Intent set to Relative Colorimetric:

     

     

    2 replies

    rob day
    rob dayCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    November 1, 2023

    Hi @Roger Breton , I think you asked the same here?

     

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/expected-appearance-of-placed-photoshop-rgb-content-in-indesign-cc-2023/m-p/13331476/page/2#M501626

     

    In Photoshop, I did the exact same thing and save as PSD with sRGB embedded ICC profile.

     

    Photoshop files can only have a single color space, so there’s no need for a Transparency Blend Space choice—the sRGB document’s Blending Mode has to be RGB.

     

    InDesign documents can have a mix of objects with different color modes—CMYK, RGB, or Lab—so when color gets flattened on export or output there needs to be a single output space selected, which is the Transparency Blend Space.

     

    If I set InDesign’s Transparency Blend Space to Document RGB (sRGB in your case), both the placed sRGB Photoshop file (which by default has an sRGB blending space) and the native InDesign colors match:

     

     

    They also match if I turn on Overprint/Separation Preview, which shows the conversion to Document CMYK:

     

    Photoshop’s Proof Colors set to Working CMYK does the same. Here the Working CMYK space is GRACoL with the Intent set to Relative Colorimetric:

     

     

      Roger Breton
      Roger BretonAuthor
      Brainiac
      November 1, 2023

      Rob,

      You're right. This is an old post I ended up revisiting.

      You're right to point out "If I set InDesign’s Transparency Blend Space to Document RGB" everything matches.

      Anyone can observe the same including yours truly.

      BUT that is NOT the case, here, is it? 
      It's a "Print" document and therefore "InDesign’s Transparency Blend Space is set to Document CMYK".
      I wish you could help further.
      At least, have you been able to replicate my results at your end? I'm going to submit this as a bug.

      rob day
      rob day
      Community Expert
      November 1, 2023

      It's a "Print" document and therefore "InDesign’s Transparency Blend Space is set to Document CMYK".

       

      I don’t think you will get anywhere with the bug report, there‘s nothing stopping you from setting a Print intent document’s Blend Space to RGB—the Intent simply sets up the intial colors and blend space, and they all can be changed once the doc is created.

       

      Because the blend space is applied to the entire spread, you will have potential problems with built CMYK colors like CMYK Black only converting to 4-color when the blend space is RGB, but there are ways of getting around that problem with PDF/X-4 exports in AcrobatPro.

      Roger Breton
      Roger BretonAuthor
      Brainiac
      November 1, 2023

      For curiosity, using RGB Transparency Blend space, the result is flawless:

       

      Roger Breton
      Roger BretonAuthor
      Brainiac
      November 1, 2023

      I must be doing something "silly"?
      I tried "flattening" the Photoshop file in Photoshop and import that back -- no difference.
      I tried copying and pasting from Photoshop in InDesign -- no difference.

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