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Conduit Communications
Participating Frequently
March 23, 2021
Answered

When I re-open indesign document white text changes to blue, and other items also color shift. Help.

  • March 23, 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 1603 views

I have been using Indesign for probably a decade or so and never seen anything like this.

 

When I open any old document - ie from last week so not old old - the colours have changed, and white text is now blue? Also some outline graphics (eg 75%) shift color. I tried downgrading my version of INdesign to see if that was the issue but still the same problem. This problem is only happening on my imac not my macbook air 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Laubender

Ah, I found this thread I mentioned:

Orange that appears turquoise
xavierg33482246, Mar 15, 2021

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/orange-that-appears-turquoise/m-p/11898999#M418238

 

Did not follow all the posts or if there was found a cause, but the solution was to turn on color management, that was turned off for unknown reasons. Well, one reason could have been, that a recent update of either InDesign, PhotoShop or Adobe Bridge switched InDesign's color management off in Color Settings…

 

But this is speculation from my side.

Was not confirmed, I think.

 

Conduit Communications,

from your screenshot I can see that you are on Mac OS. What version exactly? Is it one of the new machines with the M1 processor? And: Did your color settings in InDesign switch to "Emulate Adobe Indesign 2.0 CMS Off" ?

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

7 replies

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 19, 2021

Hi together,

this issue with showing wrong colors should be fixed with the upcoming InDesign 2021 version 16.2.0.30.

The cause of it: "HSB colors in Swatches and Color panels work incorrectly when the Color Settings is set to "Emulate Adobe InDesign 2.0 CMS Off".

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/fixed-issues.html

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180/suggestions/42504469

 

Note: The update will be released in phases, some regions today others later in the week.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 30, 2021

Hi Conduit Communications,

you marked my answer as the "Correct" one. Thanks!

So, was the solution to turn on color management and not using the setting "Emulate Adobe Indesign 2.0 CMS Off" in Color Settings… ?

 

The last days we see a lot of discussions here at the InDesign forum where "Emulate Adobe Indesign 2.0 CMS Off" was enabled without notice due to a bug with updates to InDesign, PhotoShop and Adobe Bridge on Mac OS with some side effects:

 

No export to PDF/X-4 or PDF/X-3.

Therefore no possibility to export a document to grayscale.

 

Now some issue with HSB colors.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

C
Conduit CommunicationsAuthor
Participating Frequently
March 30, 2021

Yes - I went to color mode and the color setting was '"Emulate Adobe Indesign 2.0 CMS Off' so I changed it to 'North America General Purpose 2' and then it autopopulated the rest of the options.

 

Then I went and opened old documents and they were all fine. I can only presume that this auto changed with an Indesign update - which his annoying.

 

I have a laptop where Indesign had not updated, and where the files were fine, and I just checked that (I guess I should have done that before but it never occured to me - which I'm not so proud of). The color settings were set to North American General Purpose 2.

 

Thank you. 

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 24, 2021

Ah, I found this thread I mentioned:

Orange that appears turquoise
xavierg33482246, Mar 15, 2021

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/orange-that-appears-turquoise/m-p/11898999#M418238

 

Did not follow all the posts or if there was found a cause, but the solution was to turn on color management, that was turned off for unknown reasons. Well, one reason could have been, that a recent update of either InDesign, PhotoShop or Adobe Bridge switched InDesign's color management off in Color Settings…

 

But this is speculation from my side.

Was not confirmed, I think.

 

Conduit Communications,

from your screenshot I can see that you are on Mac OS. What version exactly? Is it one of the new machines with the M1 processor? And: Did your color settings in InDesign switch to "Emulate Adobe Indesign 2.0 CMS Off" ?

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 24, 2021

    Hi Conduit Communications,

    select the recolored text showing the blue and visit the Swatches panel.

    Is there a swatch with that blue selected? Or is it a unnamed color that is doing this?

     

    Could you save a sample InDesign document, a single page, just that text will do, put it on Dropbox or a similar service and share the download link so that we can have a look?

     

    Hm. Didn't we had a case recently where also a blue was showing up by surprise?
    Had to do with the new HSB color feature, I think.

     

    Thanks,
    Uwe Laubender

    ( ACP )

    David Popham
    David Popham
    Participating Frequently
    March 24, 2021

    Does anyone else have access to the files? Is it possible someone edited the colors?

      C
      Conduit CommunicationsAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      March 30, 2021

      Thank you for your suggestion. I would have suspected that, but no, just me. As it turns out it was the color settings that must have changed with an update - which is annoying! "Emulate Adobe Indesign 2.0 CMS Off"  was indeed set to off so I changed that.

      Bill Silbert
      Community Expert
      Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 24, 2021

      With no document open double-click on the color known as "Paper" in your Swatch Panel. If the CMYK breakdown that you see in that dialog window does not say C=0 M=0 Y=0 K=0 then make it so. Then quit and relaunch InDesign, Then try opening up your old documents.

      The dafault for the "Paper" color is for all intents and purposes white, but it can be made to represent any color of paper that you may be printing on. It seems possible that this is what is happening.

        Mike Witherell
        Community Expert
        Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        March 23, 2021

        Does the blue text at top and bottom have a paragraph and/or character style controlling it? And have you examined the style options to see whether it is calling for blue?

        Mike Witherell
          C
          Conduit CommunicationsAuthor
          Participating Frequently
          March 24, 2021

          Thank you for taking the time to look at this.

          It doesn't seem to be anything to do with the paragraph or character styles as this text has the same styles as other text blocks. The default color for the style for these words is black, and I seem to have specified white for those particular words - ie 0C.0M.0Y.0K or #fffff but despite that, it is blue. I don't understand this but perhaps it's some setting although I don't recall changing anything. See screen grab below. However I do see that the 'H' radio button is selected and this seems to have something to do with this - but how did that happen?

           

          Many thanks

           

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