Sometimes InDesign users have trouble matching spot colors between Photoshop and InDesign. The problem doesn’t occur when colors coming from Photoshop are printed as spot color separations. It happens when you pick a spot color in Photoshop, but output to a CMYK or RGB printer, like when you’re making a proof. Fortunately, InDesign CS2 provides an easy solution to the problem.
Let’s start by seeing how each application defines a spot color: In Photoshop, you would usually define a spot color by creating a spot channel. To do this, choose New Spot Channel from the Channels palette. The New Spot Channel dialog appears. Photoshop’s default is to define colors in the current color mode, so you need to click the color box. Then in the Color Picker, select Color Libraries. For this example, we’ll assume you’re picking from the PANTONE solid coated book. We’ll pick Pantone 172 C. Notice to the right of the swatches is the color definition: L: 58, a: 68, b: 70. Photoshop defines its colors by default in Lab Color, which is device-independent color.
Now let’s define the same spot color in InDesign: Here’s we’ll define the color from the Swatches palette. We choose New Color Swatch from the Swatches palette menu, and set the Color Type to Spot. From the Color Mode menu we can choose the same PANTONE library. Again, we’ll pick Pantone 172 C and click Add to add it to our swatch colors. When we look at it on the Swatches palette, the “circle” icon indicates that it’s a spot color, and the 4-color icon indicates its defined in CMYK. CMYK is device-dependent color, different than Lab. If you pause over the icon, a tool tip indicates it’s mixed as C=0, M=66, Y=88, K=0.
We’ll place a Photoshop file with the spot color we saved as a spot channel into InDesign. Even though the applications have defined the color differently, when we print spot color separations, we have no problem outputting them on the same color plate. We can preview this in the Separations Preview palette. In the illustration below, the Photoshop color is above and the InDesign swatch is below. Both the Photoshop and InDesign-created spot color outputs on the same plate.
The problem occurs if you print to a CMYK printer (or probably an RGB inkjet printer) as a composite. If you printed the color from the Photoshop file to your printer, it will look differently when output from InDesign because each application is using a different definition of the color.
InDesign CS2 provides the easy solution in its great Ink Manager dialog box. You can get to this in many ways?from the Separations Preview or Swatches palette menus, or when printing or exporting files. There is a new option at the bottom of the dialog box to Use Standard Lab Values for Spots, which is turned off by default. If you turn it on, InDesign uses the same Lab Color values as Photoshop. When you choose to print composite output, the spot colors will print the same from each program.
You can even see the change on the Swatches palette. Your spot color swatch will now show a unique little Lab Color icon instead of the 4-color icon it sported earlier!
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on November 3, 2006
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