Comments on: Getting Accurate Colors When Printing Proofs from InDesign

By: Ajay Kumar Mittal, India

Ajay Kumar Mittal, India — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:55:52 +0000

I am trying to print a coffee table book using Indesign having lot of photographs in it. It is designed in version CS3. I am using tiff or jpg formates of images in CMYK. The result on offset printing or digital press is coming very dark. I need a help how to controll. If I use coreldraw using the same images results are good. Need help in controlling the colours in Indesign version CS3.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:10:09 +0000

@Lauren: it sounds as though the trouble is when you print the PDF, yes? Or is it also when printing from InDesign? In either case, it is likely a factor of the color management settings (either in Acrobat or InDesign). Laser printers will never give you super accurate results (that’s why most people use inkjets for color proofing), but I use a laser printer most of the time and I can get pretty good color. You might look at the printer driver settings for your printer (in the print dialog box); perhaps they’ve been set to Darken or something.

By: Lauren B

Lauren B — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:22:34 +0000

Hi,

I’m having similar color problems, but I’m not so much concerned with RGB/CMYK conversions as my PDF just printing super, super dark. The colors look perfect in ID and as an exported PDF, but when we print, everything is very dark.

I sort of attributed the issue to resolution issues between computer screens and print, but reading this I wonder now if it’s because we use a laser printer. Can I get any clarification on this?

I’m just tired of nothing looking like how I designed it.

Thanks~

By: Marian Rowling

Marian Rowling — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:48:11 +0000

I am still really confused. I am in the UK and I just want to print final proofs for my own portfolio from Indesign CS4 on Epson Heavyweight Matte paper; using a Epson stylus photo 1400. I have tried all the settings suggested above however my prints still come out very dark. Are you able to advise me what colour workspace I should use if I’m only printing to my inkjet and not going to a printing press. I am working on a MacBook Pro and someone suggested that I should get ColorMunki Photo calibration software as the screens can be overly bright. However just as a test I took one of my placed Photoshop files and lightened it by a considerable amount. On reprinting from Indesign the file was still dark.

If you are able to help I would appreciate it as the more I read the more confused I get and the more settings there seem to be.

By: Kent Eriksson

Kent Eriksson — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:33:59 +0000

Thank you SO MUCH!
I’ve been wrestling with the damn printer at work four hours now when indesign simply refuses to print correctly, and after a frustrating google session i finally found this fantastic post saving my day and the production deadline.

I can’t thank you enough, this gave insight and cleared things up big time for me, and at the same time finally gave the printer the respect it deserves.

Damn, i love you for this!

By: Graphic Designer Atlanta

Graphic Designer Atlanta — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:25:52 +0000

This is good information. Thnaks.

By: Ewan Main

Ewan Main — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:48:35 +0000

Caitlyn, I think I can answer that, if you're on a Mac. (If you're on Windows, apologies and please ignore what follows!) I experienced exactly the same problem myself, and fixed it. The problem is that Snow Leopard stores its profiles in a different place from where InDesign looks for them. But it's an easy fix. Firstly go to your home folder, then Library, then ColorSync. Right-click (or control-click) on the Profiles folder and choose Make Alias. Then open a new Finder window, and navigate to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles . Move the alias you made into that folder. Re-start InDesign and you should see all your own profiles listed along with the default ones. Good luck! Ewan.

By: Caitlyn Gibbons

Caitlyn Gibbons — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:04:13 +0000

Oh lordy, I will be so grateful if someone can help me. I am trying to print a document from Indesign on my Epson R1800 but when I go to Color Management > Printer Profile, none of the icc profiles I downloaded from Epson.com show up. The options are document RGB, working RGB, apple RGB, etc, but no paper or printer profiles. They show up in Illustrator, but not Indesign. So frustrating.

Caitlyn

By: Jos Plas

Jos Plas — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:36:16 +0000

It took me an hour to figure this one out.
After an Indesign crash and recovory I had the same problem. I had to set the “Transparancy Blend Space” back to Document RGB.

Greetz, Jos Plas

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:44:29 +0000

Thanks for the nice reply last week!

I did turn ‘Preserve numbers’ on…but it still printed out wrong (the colors still didn’t match…)
Is there anything else you can advise me with?…. My last resort is to import the whole Indesign PDF into Photoshop and then save everything new again as ‘flattened .psd images’ – and then replace the new flattened .psd files into Indesign and save for another ‘final PDF’. I’ve done this before….and the color DOES match when printing….but it is a very annoying and slow process – especially when working in 400 dpi. I end up with so many files and lose my vector data (everything turns into pixel data when imported into Photoshop)…. This process also reduces the line quality a bit from my artwork…. That is why this method is my last resort…. Do you recomend doing this method if it works…? The weird thing is that the Seperation preview in Indesign says that my colors DO match….I just don’t get it….Maybe Adobe just hates me….

I look forward to hearing from you again,

Best wishes and Happy Holidays,
Joel