What settings I should use in export?

Report · Feb 09, 2022

Hello,

I have document, that includes images that I have edited in Photoshop. I edited these images in Photoshop in Adobe RGB (1998) color profile, I used the same profile in my camera when filming.

I have InDesign document that includes those Adobe RGB (1998) color profile images and also some text and simple square rectangles, these elements has color profiles: RGB black (R0 G0 B0) and RGB white (R255 G255 B255).

Now I need to export this document to PDF-file. That PDF-file will be used only in "PDF-use". I mean that I won't put it to any website or anything. I will put that to Word-document eventually (to the appendix to my thesis work). It doesn't matter if file size is big, I just want best quality as possible. I have some screenshots from export-page (you can look them). Especially Compression and Output tabs contains settings I would need some help with. What color profile to use? I live in Finland (in Europe) if that has some limits or special settings. Probably it doesn't matter where I live because this is not going to printed.

Also do I need to worry about that warning that Summary tab shows?

Thank you so much! Sorry about some grammar mistakes. This is part of my thesis work, so big step forward for me if I can export this with right settings 🙂

Report · Feb 10, 2022

First, it is safe to ignore that warning. It's a warning, not an error, and it's telling you that your color profiles will be sued instead of the baked-in profiles in the preset, which is what you want.

Since you are not going to print this you are really at the mercy of whatever screen is being used to view it and whether that screen is calibrated and profiled (most are not) and if it is even capable of showing all the colors in AdobeRGB (again, most are not). I think I would personally opt for using the PDF/X-4 preset which preserves all the color information and any transparency in the file and makes no conversions. It will also make it easier to have this file printed professionally later if you change your mind.

The default downsampling and compression settings are fine for most most situations. The only time I would increase the resolution valuse is for high-end press output of something like a fine art or photography publication, and I would seek the correct settings from the printer in that case. Lowering the values for downsampling can reduce the size of the PDF, and 200 PPI (or even 150) may be adequate for output on a desktop printer, or for very large output intended to be viewed from a distance like posters. Huge things, like billboards, require even less. You can find a good discussion of this at Distance-Resolution Formula

The default compression is jpeg, which is lossy, but again, probaly not an issue for most situations. Zip compression is lossless, but will make you file a bit larger.

Report · Feb 10, 2022

I have InDesign document that includes those Adobe RGB (1998) color profile images and also some text and simple square rectangles, these elements has color profiles: RGB black (R0 G0 B0) and RGB white (R255 G255 B255).

From your description, all the images and colors in your document are assigned the same AdobeRGB profile, so the Output>Color setting you are showing will work fine—all of the color will be exported as profiled AdobeRGB. You would get the same result if you set Output to No Color Conversion Include All profiles because all of the color already is AdobeRGB.

The color warning happens when your document color profile assignments are something other than sRGB and US Web Coated SWOP. There are many cases where you don’t want to assign those profiles, incuding yours, so you should ignore the warning.

Report · Feb 10, 2022

Is your text really RGB black? That would be OK on screen or printing to a desktop printer (maybe), but would cause problems in other printing.

Report · Feb 10, 2022

Thank you for answering.

Yes, my text is RGB black (R0 G0 B0). I'm not going to print this professionally, not going to order this from printing company, that's why I used RGB colors and not CMYK.

I'm maybe going to print this from desktop printer (or bigger version of that, which my school has), and I heard that the image quality doesn't have to be perfect, that file is going to archive. So I hope that RGB black would be good option for web use.