Avoiding “Possible Problems” when placing RGB images
I take a lot of screen shots which I need to place into ID documents.
Because most of that work will be output as PDF for onscreen viewing, I leave the screen shots as RGB. (Better to see all those beautiful aqua colors on OS X.)
But when I do leave the images as RGB, I get an alert when I go to package my file. Turns out all the RGB images are flagged as a possible problem.
I finally figured out how to avoid the flagged problems. Instead of saving my screen shots as PSD or TIFF, I save them as PDF.
InDesign doesn’t see an RGB PDF file as an RGB document! If you place an RGB file saved as Photoshop PSD, it will not show up as the RGB color space. Instead, the type of file is listed as PDF.
This has become a terrific way for me to avoid getting unwanted RGB flags.
However, it is something important to remember if you do need to flag RGB files. In those cases, remember that Photoshop PDF documents won’t get flagged in the Preflight or Packaging commands.
ICC profile missing?
In french? je me demande si votre problème n’est pas simplement du à l’absence d’un profil ICC correct associé à votre image?
Bonne soirée.
JChris has written (my bad translation):
I wonder whether your problem is not simply with the absence of a correct profile ICC associated your image… Good evening.
No, I don’t think that is the problem as I just placed a PSD RGB file that didn’t have a profile and it was flagged.
Just tested it myselve. The ICC profile does not show up for the RGB or the CMYK image when saved as P’shop PDF and placed in IND CS. This is strange! Why is IND not able to read the ICC profile? PDF is Adobe’s format… Not like it’s postscript or something…
Actually, PDF is a special kind of PostScript that allows random access.
A PDF file could contain any number of ICC profiles and color spaces: RGB, CMYK, spot colors, DeviceRGB, Grayscale. InDesign can’t assign a color space or profile. The color spaces are already managed within the PDF.
Thank you BlueKDesign. What this seems to indicate is that ID ignores the RBG image in my PDF.
Which is then why it doesn’t pop up as an error. Which was my original point.
So what BlueKDesign means is InDesign willl leave the placed PDF unmanaged? Isn’t this dangerous when placing a RGB PDF? I don’t fully understand why a Photoshop PDF can’t be read? Could someone fill me in?
Are you creating an online PDF or the perfect hires PDF for the printer, you guys just keep continue to import RGB imports in InDesign and don’t worry, ID will convert everything into CMYK.
Screenshots in OS X are automatically tagged by the System (monitor profile).
Because the Flightcheck feature is mostly useless (so what if the pics are in RGB mode ?), I don’t see what’s Sandee point here. Could you clarify please ?
If your document’s color settings are set to preserve RGB profiles (which is the default, and it would be very unusual for someone to change this), then InDesign does see the embedded profile in the RGB document — whether it’s PDF, TIFF, or PSD. As Branislav mentioned, Sandee is pointing to a “flaw” in the Preflight feature which tells you that RGB images are an error, when in many cases they’re not. I find the Preflight feaure virtually useless for a number of reasons, including the fact that you cannot tell it what is and what is not acceptable.
The preflight mechanism is thinking in traditional terms of CMYK; and so flags all RGB as wrong. This is so even if the document is set to RGB. I consider this a flaw, and the fact that it can’t examine the color space of a PDF nor an Adobe Illustrator file strikes me as something that needs updating. The industry is moving in an RGB direction, and InDesign shouldn’t be late to the party.
In other words… I can place PDF files in InDesign CS2 without havi
ng to worry about font or RGB problems?
Branislav Milic said:
‘Are you creating an online PDF or the perfect hires PDF for the printer, you guys just keep continue to import RGB imports in InDesign and don?t worry, ID will convert everything into CMYK.’
Does this mean that I can place PSD files saved in RGB and InDesign will take care of the conversion to CMYK? Also in my PDF export for the printer?
Thank you! I was very frustrated with this same problem, but this solution seems to work.