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Participant
November 9, 2024
Question

blacks in my photoshop file saved as PDF appearing as gray to another user

  • November 9, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 595 views

Hello good folks

 

Im currently working on a business card in photoshop under CMYK as its supposed to be printed, firstly i don't see any option to export the file as a pdf so i instead use the "save as" option to save as a photoshop PDF file, everything appears normal to me in acrobat. 

 

how ever when i sent that pdf file to my manager , the black background appears as gray for them, they are using an apple m1 mac and an iPhone if that matters at all. 

 

I'm attaching how it appears for me in acrobat vs how it appears for them when they open it via whatsapp on their iPhone or acrobat in mac

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2 replies

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2024
quote

Im currently working on a business card in photoshop under CMYK as its supposed to be printed

 

Technically, just because a file is to be printed, it doesn't have to be in CMYK mode. 

 

You have set a very safe 240% total ink coverage for a large area of solid black, which is a good thing to do. 

 

240% total ink obviously has less density than the extreme of 400% total ink, so a good PDF viewing application such as Acrobat will show the differences between the two. So yes, one may appear to be "grey" compared to the other, however, the "grey" one will still print and view as black if the CMYK values are honoured.

 

Having an ICC profile embedded in the PDF will inform an ICC colour-managed application of the intent of the CMYK numbers. Not all PDF viewers are colour-managed. Even if a PDF application is colour-managed, it may show slight differences between a PDF with and without an embedded ICC profile due to its colour management settings for assumed colour modes.

 

Here is a screenshot from Apple Preview on a Mac, the same 240% CMYK values as yours, but one PDF had an embedded ICC profile (left-hand side) and the other didn't (right-hand side):

 

In Photoshop, if one uses the View > Proof Colors feature for a CMYK profile with "Simulate Black Ink" activated, you will see a similar result, softproof on (left) and softproof off (right):

 

 

When viewing CMYK PDF files, one should use an appropriate PDF viewer, which is most often Adobe Acrobat Reader as an entry-point (there are other options, however, these come at a cost and are purpose-built for prepress, not consumers).

Participant
November 9, 2024

To add a few details , the black is 60,40,40,100 in CMYK

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2024

What CMYK profile are you using? Is it embedded in the PDF?

 

Can you take a Lab sample of the black in Photoshop, with the color picker, and give us the Lab numbers? Lab is an absolute reference, and that will establish what the correct representation of the file is.

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 9, 2024
quote

Can you take a Lab sample of the black in Photoshop, with the color picker, and give us the Lab numbers? Lab is an absolute reference, and that will establish what the correct representation of the file is.


By @D Fosse

 

Good point, however, there is a caveat:

 

 

Colour Settings have to be temporarily changed to use Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent (lower image) to have a correct L value for evaluation relative to the document or working space ICC profile.