InDesign CC - How to Adjust Export Gamma (In Colour)

Report · Jan 31, 2020

Hello Internet,

We are publishing printed content: books, calendars, banners, etc.

I am having an issue with a new print shop where everything printed (digital) in colour is coming out very dark. We have no issues with our own printers or any of the other print shops we have dealt with, but instead of bemoaning the issue or making them throw their whole setup out of whack Id like to find a simple solution if possible.

This new printer said they have lightened the prints by "15 points" (whatever that means) which helps a lot but it would be nice to have them even a bit lighter. They said futher lightening on their end will introduce noise into the print.

Long story short:

For BW print jobs we use the "Gray Gamma 1.8" or 2.2 to adjust the lightness of the output and it tedns to work just fine. What im looking for is a similar setting for colour exports.

Is there an export setting in InDesign that allows me to lighten a colour export? If not, I am open to a solution in Acrobat DC Pro as well. I just dont want to adjust the actual Indesign content just for one print shop when all the others are having no issues. We have no choice but to use this printer at this moment so changing that is not an option.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or replies!

Cristian

Report · Jan 31, 2020

Are you sending RGB or CMYK color?

Report · Jan 31, 2020

Could this printing company send you a PDF Preset which you can use to export out print ready PDFs just for them?

Report · Feb 01, 2020

Digital shop doesn't know what they're doing - if everything is ok with other suppliers, then what remains must be true, they are bad.

15 points doesn't make sense to me - never heard that term in over 25 years in the business.

Always get a printed sample from new suppliers. Never give a new printers the job until you're happy with their output.

Report · Feb 01, 2020

15 points doesn't make sense to me - never heard that term in over 25 years in the business.

Sounds like a Canon copier—Minuteman Press or Staples?

Report · Feb 01, 2020

The reason I asked about the export color is, if the digital printer is using an RGB driver, which is the case with most composite printers, and you send CMYK with no profile, the printer will not be able to correctly color manage the output because there will be no source profile associated the CMYK color. The printer may, or may not, know what they are doing, but with composite printing, and no source CMYK profile, the output and appearance of CMYK color will be random.

Any of the presets designed for separated press output (i.e, PDF/X-4, PDF/X-1a, Press Quality) will export CMYK color as DeviceCMYK (no profile), and would create a color management problem with a composite printer where there needs to be a conversion from CMYK to the printer’s profile at output.

In a separated workflow where you have assigned the actual press profile as the document CMYK profile (i.e. Coated GRACol 2013, SWOP, or other press profiles) the DeviceCMYK exported by a PDF/X preset would not be a problem because there is no need for additional color conversions at output because your document’s CMYK color is already in the final press destination CMYK space. That might explain why you don’t have color problems at a shop where the printing is separated offset.

Report · Feb 03, 2020

Thank you for your detailed response, i appreciate it!

The files we have been sending for this and all the digital presses we have worked with are RGB for the very reasons you outlined regarding the nature of composite printers and the somewhat unpredictable behavior of CMYK to RGB conversion thats at the mercy of random drivers.

Only one company asked for CMYK (Press Quality export setting) for the digital job, and the whole thing turned out badly(green and weird).I thought it was weird myself.

In any case, with other shops using a digital press we have sent RGB and its looked great and pretty accurate. And yes we always get proofs before printing as you never know what may go wrong.And no this shop is not Staples or MinuteMan. =D

So if there is no "lightening" magic button then itll mostly likely come down to more questions and trouble shooting with them.

Thanks guys.

And Eugene, thats a pretty funny quick conclusion.

Report · Feb 03, 2020

Only one company asked for CMYK (Press Quality export setting) for the digital job, and the whole thing turned out badly(green and weird)

The default [Press Quality] preset does not include source color profiles, so unless the (composite?) printer is outputting CMYK values unchanged, it’s not surprising there would be color problems. It’s unlikely they are outputting with no additional conversions, but if they are the document’s assigned CMYK profile probably isn’t an accurate profle of the press. Something like the default US Web Coated (SWOP) is for a web offset press and not a composite digital device.