Reply To: Printing in InDesign vs. PDF Strangeness

It seems now that a lot of this is because laser printers are expecting RGB values and not CMYK values. K=100 means black, but not rich black. (Note also that “output all blacks as rich black” on preferences sometimes has an effect and sometimes doesn’t depending on various things).

Instead, convert to RGB colors when exporting in InDesign.

On the PDF export screen, click the output (on the left hand side) and convert the colors:

Color Conversion: Convert to Destination
Destination: sRGB ICE61966-2
Profile Inclusion Policy: Include Destination

That has done the trick.

Some people have used the “Registration” swatch instead of “Black” for everything black, which sort-of does the trick, but don’t do that. If this is ever sent to a printing press, some pre-press worker will be annoyed, because registration swatch is for registration marks on printing presses.