Ink limits in Photoshop & InDesign

[janie k]

The CMYK profile of my InDesign document and its constituent Photoshop images are all set to the color profile specified by the printer. However, when I view "ink limit" with InDesign's separations preview, it indicates areas where the ink limit is exceeded.

How is that possible? and what do I do about it?

Thank you in advance for the much-needed help!

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@janie k have you tried viewing in Photoshop with View>Gamut Warning active? Just because you have a color profile set doesn't mean you can't exceed ink limits.

[janie k]

Kevin -

No, I have not done that.

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

The ink limit is built into all CMYK profiles.

That means if you convert to that profile, it won't go over. That's always safe.

However, if you work in that profile, nothing stops you from going over the ink limit, and then you just need to watch it.

Note that CMYK-to-CMYK conversions will turn K-only blacks into 4 color black, as well as risking unnecessary gamut clipping.

[janie k]

D Fosse -

All editing was done earlier in the process; no editing was done after the files were CMYK.

I converted RGB PSDs (Source Space SRGB IE61966-2.1)
to CMYK PSDs (Destination Space GRACoL2013_CRPC6.icc)

[Stephen Marsh]

@janie k 

Are the images RGB or CMYK?

For RGB images, depending on the profile, different rendering intents can result in different ink limits.

What is the profile and colour mode of the images?

[janie k]

Stephen -

The placed images are CMYK, converted from RGB to GRACoL2013_CRPC6.icc color profile.

[Stephen Marsh]

@janie k – I am only seeing 317-320% total ink in preview in Photoshop, depending on the rendering intent.

If you are sure that the images are correct in Photoshop, I wouldn't worry too much about what InDesign is reporting (and I can't answer why regarding your original question).

While on the general topic, some related topics for Photoshop methods to check total ink:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/maximum-total-ink/m-p/1958829

http://www.curvemeister.com/downloads/cmyk_tac/index.htm

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/help-optimising-a-script-to-make-a-visualisation-of-total-i...

[Stephen Marsh]

@janie k 

I have obviously been out of day-to-day InDesign prepress for too long!  :]

OK, the answer is that InDesign will show a warning for 320% total ink when the image has 320% total ink:

However, if the image is under 320% (Perceptual conversion), such as 317% (Relative Colorimetric conversion with BPC), then no overlay is shown:

If you simply up the total ink to 322% then the 320% image will no longer trigger the overlay:

[Gio Anti]

Hi,

I know the thread is old, but I'm in a similar situation, so I'm giving it a try here 🙂

I'm in a situation that does not  what I do the Ink limit is never the same between Photoshop and InDesign. In Photoshop the image is under a profile with ( for extreme test ) of 200% Total Ink Limit, but no matter what, when I import into InDesign the image is always way over 340%... 

It's the first time that is happened to me, but I really do not know what else to try...

[janie k]

Hello all (and thank you for your help) -

It is my understanding, from what I've read elsewhere and what you folks have said, that

1) if I convert an image to a specific CMYK profile, the resulting file is constrained within the ink limits built into that profile.
2) in contrast, if I edit an image after converting to a CMYK profile, the resulting file is not constrained within the ink limits built into that profile.

Is that right so far?

In this instance, using a Photoshop "Action", I converted previously edited RGB images to CMYK GRACoL2013_CRPC6.icc, and no further editing was done. However, when viewed with InDesign's Ink Limit preview, the resulting images appear not to be constrained within the profile's ink limits, and I don't understand this.

This job entails almost 200 images, and (for many reasons) I really don't want to have to try to manually tweak the ink limits of each image - and it seems like I shouldn't have to.

I wonder now if InDesign's Ink Limit preview is using the the limits of the working spaces (SRGB IE61966-2.1 & US Web Coated (SWOP) v2) or the assigned CMYK space GRACoL2013_CRPC6.icc  (there is no significant change if View/Proof Colors is checked or not), or should I just type a number?

IS GRACoL2013's ink limit 300% or 320% ?

Again, thank you all for your help.

[D Fosse]

1 and 2 correct so far.

According to the icc, GRACoL2013_CRPC6 has 320% TAC (total area coverage; ink limit):

https://www.color.org/registry/index.xalter 

I haven't used InDesign lately, but I assume the document CMYK overrides the working space, just like it does in Photoshop. Proof is in any case irrelevant; that's just the display pipeline, the document is unaffected.

[janie k · Accepted solution]

That's it. InDesign's Ink Limit preview was using 300% TAC instead of the 320% allowed by the assigned/destination GRACoL2013_CRPC6. The images themselves were fine. 😊 Thank you all!