RGB to CMYK (.0)
Sometimes having RGB data in your InDesign file isn’t really a big deal. If you’ve placed an RGB image that’s properly tagged with a color profile, it should be correctly converted to CMYK on output. But there are other times when it’s not such a hot idea leaving that conversion to chance. Maybe you’ve copy/pasted text from Word or an object from Illustrator that was created in an RGB color space.
And now with CS4, if you add swatches using the Kuler panel, you’ll be adding RGB swatches.
Converting them manually isn’t all that big a deal but the built in conversion will leave you with CMYK numbers that are defined out several decimal places deep.
I know of no press in the world where you’ll see a difference between 36% cyan and 36.24% cyan and while leaving those numbers alone won’t cause a problem, there’s a little voice in my head that keeps whispering “fix that!”
My fellow Adobe User to User forums host and scripting guru Dave Saunders has come to the rescue once again with this terrific script which can be downloaded from here. Not only does it convert all of your RGB swatches to CMYK, but at the same time it rounds those numbers off to eliminate those annoying decimal percentages.
A bit of tweaking may still be in order, but at least you’ll be starting from a whole number.
In the mean time, I just wish that little voice would shout “FIX THAT!” to the engineers at Adobe. 
Wow… I have been waiting for this script forever… Thanks Bob and Dave!
Excellent Script! Now all I need is a CMYK to “Closest Pantone Spot Color” and we’re in business!
great script! can’t wait to try it.
BTW, the script works in CS3.
I’ve wanted to write a script like that for Illy as well.
Here my heretical statement:
What’s the problem with RGB Colors in the Patches-Panel?
They will be converted on output (or earlier if you use transparency and your transparency space is CMYK) with the same result – as long as you don’t change your color settings. So, it does not matter if you color convert RGB in the Patches Panel or later on output (or by use of transperency). But if you leave colors in RGB, you can achieve correct color transformations on different output conditions. This is great! Yes, it’s great. I love RGB. I only need this
old-fashioned guy CMYK to achieve clean numbers like 100% K. In all other cases: Come on! Trust in colormanagement! (And ignore decimals! They don’t hurt you.)
Special regards from Europe
Martin
FANTASTIC!!!
Martin: I have to agree with you… to a degree. If someone is adventerous enough to pick RGB colors in InDesign using kuler or based on the color they see on screen, then I don’t see any good reason to convert them to CMYK in the Swatches panel.
However, I strongly urge people to avoid picking RGB colors based on the screen or Kuler, just because they look pretty. People have been burned at print time for 20 years because of this. Yes, color management helps, but very few people are really prepared to deal with all the ramifications of using RGB colors (including soft proofing them in CMYK to see what they’re “really” going to look like, etc.)
I like kuler, but I stick with CMYK values (which you cannot get in ID CS4’s kuler at the moment… hoping they’ll fix that someday).
As I said, it’s likely that you’re going to need to tweak them anyway (no need for a color that converts with 1 percent of anything) but they’re really a good start for someone looking for a, um, a good start.
Really, what’s the difference in mixing CMYK colors on screen as opposed to adding what you already think are nice complimentary RGB colors and then converting them all in one fell swoop?
And this isn’t just about Kuler. What about copy/pasting from Illy if the artwork was created in RGB? You’re going to get RGB swatches with that, too.
Why don’t RGB colours show in the ink manager?
I presume it’s some technicality between ink and colour or light or something, but truly the Swatches show the colours in the document, so surely the Ink Manager should show RGB too, and the option to convert to CMYK so that you can preserve numbers?
Am I missing something with this? Would it just be best to leave as RGB and leave the convert on output or convert the Swatches to CMYK before outputting?
Surely the former method would convert to the Destination Profile but the latter method would preserve numbers?
Would it?
@Eugene: RGB colors don’t show up in the ink manager because they’re not inks.
@Bob: You’re right: Picking a CMYK color on screen is almost as dubious, because it’s based on an RGB representation of the color and most people aren’t in a color managed-enough environment to trust it. However, at least when picking a CMYK color you are choosing something that can be printed in CMYK. When you pick RGB, there’s a reasonable chance that it will be out of the CMYK gamut and therefore may change radically upon conversion.
@David: Exactly…which is why you’d convert them to CMYK in InDesign BEFORE outputting.
Anyway…I see I’ve now contributed my first “controversial” post.
@David: Well I thought as much, but lends to the point you made to Bob, that on conversion they could be out of gamut and cause radical change. And as it’s an Ink “Manager” one might think that it would “Manage” the RGB and say things like “Oh, I see some RGB here, would you like to just convert those to CMYK inks all the time?” or at least give the option to convert all RGB to CMYK before output, then previewing in Overprint or Separations would at least show the change, would it not?
@Myself and just rambling: Important thing is, thatI always try not to have RGB swatches in the Swatches Panel. The copying from word is the biggest culprit.
I would like the chance though to map those colours, like RGB that come from Word, to CMYK swatches, like the blue in hyperlinks, forever coming in and I’m forever deleting it, and then choosing a swatch to replace it.
Perhaps what I’m after is a “Swatch Manager”?
Anyway, it’s all here nor there, it can’t do it, so no point in whining about it.
@David: OK, I overshot the mark… I myself use CMYKs most time. But I use RGB too, and it is no problem, as long as I understand the colormanagement workflow.
In older days we pick colors out of color books all the time, and we were accustomed that these were round numbers. But to day colors become more versatile…
This discussion brings to mind one of my “can’t live without it” apps. Art Director’s Toolkit. It does wonders with “equivalencies”…I just clicked on the IDCS3 icon and got the color results in Pantone solid coated (choose your library), RGB, HSB, Lab, Hex, and CMYK. I think the Mac version is around $40 and the Windows version is around $30.
This script will do wonders for working in the mixed program world that I’m in! I really do not like Mr. Gates stuff…but I’m stuck with people who use it!
OK, but what about images? Do I have to convert all images placed in InDesign (or even Quark.. *cough, cough*) to CMYK when I am sending a high-resolution PDF? Any help or experience with this would help.
@GregH: The answer to that is complicated. I almost always import RGB images into InDesign and then convert them to CMYK as part of the PDF Export process (using Convert to Destination, Preserve Numbers). However, if I’m working with a output provider (printer) who is color mgmt savvy and can deal with RGB images, then sending them PDF/X-3 (with RGB managed images) is often a good option.
I am in RGB CMYK HELL. I am new to magazine publishing. I sware I made my first nine issues with every image in rgb and the printer didn’t say a word. Now, I think they must have just converted it and went on. For whatever reason they caught me last month and said all my images needed to be converted. Fair enough. This month my designers had 66 rbg images which I converted and updated the links. BUT the printer said their is still 739 rbg color files in the document. I know its not the images.
How to I set Indesign to only use CMYK when creating text, color boxes and so on. Every red peice of text is in rgb, along with every other color but black. SAVE ME!
InDesign will use whatever colors you tell it to use. How are you supplying the files to the printer? If you use the Press PDF setting it should convert all the RGB to CMYK for you, but if you’ve used RGB black for your text, you’ll still have a problem. The wrong PDF settings however will cause everything to convert to RGB.
Look in your swatches panel to see if the colors are RGB or CMYK. The icon on the right side will show you.
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. — Thomas Huxley
just wanna say thanks man ^^
so i downloaded the convertrgbtocmyk.jsx file, thanks very much, btw. what do i do with it now, so it converts stuff?
@gary: http://indesignsecrets.com/how-to-install-scripts-in-indesign.php
If you need to work with specific (spot) Pantone colors:
• Upload an image to Kuhler, create swatch theme, save.
• Create new document in Photoshop.
• Go to Window-Extensions-Kuhler and search for your theme; add theme to your swatches list.
• With eyedropper tool, double click on a swatch. In Color palette, double click the colored square.
• Choose Color libraries, then Pantone solid coated (or your choice of library).
• Photoshop chooses the nearest Pantone color for you!
• Jot down the Pantone number. Repeat for the other 3 or 4 swatches.
• Now you can go to InDesign or Illustrator and create new spot color swatches using those Pantone numbers. (Swatches-drop down menu-New Color Swatch-Color Mode-Pantone solid coated or whatever rather than RGB or CMYK, type in the number, add to swatch list.) Spot colors can be easily changed back to CMYK just by changing the color mode under Swatch Options.