Indesing dulling B/W tones

[jonathanp96416794]

Hey!

I see all the conversations on here about color space and the dulling of colors-- but does anyone experience tonal flattening when transferring imabes to Indesign? This flattening of the tones transfers to the PDF as well, no matter the color space.

examples below:
Original Indesign

Thanks!

[Eugene Tyson]

How it looks in InDesign is due to InDesign using a Proxy Image - it doesn't show the actual image. 

The flattening of tones in the PDF is due to your PDF settings. 

InDesign has no ability to alter your image - only the output settings affect the output result. 

You will have to share more details - like PDF settings, your colour settings etc. 

[jonathanp96416794]

I've exported thru all color spaces, changed the images thru all color spaces, the flat tones carries through regardless.

My workaround has been processing them from PSD to JPEG and re-inserting them.

[rob day]

With Overprint Preview turned on InDesign previews grayscales as they will print on the CMYK black plate using the document’s assigned CMYK profile. With OP turned off and an RGB Transparency Blend Space, the preview is sGray (2.2 Gamma), which is useful if you are designing for screens. If you are designing for print you’ll want to use a matching CMYK Black Ink profile when you edit the original in Photoshop (not Photoshop’s default 20% Dot Gain Gray profile).

These threads describe how to use Black Ink profiles:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/exporting-rgb-cmyk-and-grayscale-to-print-pdf/m-p/11034002?p...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/dot-gain-or-gray-gamma/td-p/8365606?page=1

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/adjusting-many-black-and-white-pictures/td-p/11699029?page=...

[jonathanp96416794]

Attempted, no change to the image in the program, or coming out.

As addressed above, I've run through all color spaces in photoshop to indesign and indesign to PDF-- no change to tones.

Would this have something to do with the file being dropped in as a PSD? converting the file to Jpeg seems to work fine-- but I have to remember to change the file before final.

[rob day]

What is your InDesign document’s assigned CMYK profile? 

Here my InDesign CMYK profile is Coated GRACol and I have Overprint Preview turned on. I’m using the Black Ink version of the Coated GRACol profile as the Gray profile in Photoshop. 

If you want to share your ID doc and the grayscale via a sharing service like Dropbox or your CC account we can take a look.

[jonathanp96416794]

I've changed from Document/Working CMYK to RGB 1999 to GRACol-- each is a sublt change, but not the full tones.
PS is Grey Gamma 2.2

[rob day]

In InDesign the document’s CMYK profile is set via Edit>Assign Profiles... (not the Color Settings Working CMYK, which could be different).

In Photoshop you want to change the Grayscale’s profile assignment to the Black Ink version of the InDesign Document’s CMYK profile. You can see my grayscale example has Black Ink GRACol assigned—not Gamma 2.2.

Gamma 2.2 is a display class profile—Black Ink profiles are for press output.

There are detailed instructions on creating and assigning Black Ink profiles in the links I posted above.

[rob day]

Also, if your Photoshop grayscale is Gamma 2.2, setting your InDesign Transparency Blend space to RGB should give you a match. That wouldn’t cause an output problem if the destination is a screen, or you are printing to a composite printer (i.e., inkjet), but if the output is an offset press, the grayscale will get converted to 4-color CMYK.