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• • April 5, 2016 at 1:45 am #83709
    RWVVV

    Member

    Hi,

    Output devices and colour profiles have always been somewhat of a mystery to me. Some desktop publisher am I, right? Honestly, most of my material gets published digitally, so I actually prefer to set up RGB documents and whenever something gets printed, it will mostly be done digitally and you’ll never be too certain how it will come out, until you did a test run to see how the printer handles it.

    Now here’s this issue I have: in both Illustrator and Indesign I don’t have proof colour view enabled, so document colour settings apply – both on Apple RGB. Still, graphics in Illustrator a tint darker than in Indesign, while they have the same values for RGB.

    When I export a (interactive) PDF from ID, it looks exactly like what I see on my ID app window. When I export a PDF (with no colour/profile inclusion) from AI, it also looks exactly like how it looks in that app. It baffles me.

    I’m trying to figure out why colours look different in both applications. I am suspecting some kind of Gamma setting in ID, although I can’t find it. Can anyone point me towards a solution?

  • April 5, 2016 at 7:19 am #83716
    Ari Singer

    Member

    I don’t understand why you should use RGB if you print it digitally. Even if <em<you’ll never be too certain how it will come out it’s arguably still gonna look more accurate when you use a CMYK colorspace that when using a RGB colorspace.

  • April 5, 2016 at 11:31 am #83733
    RWVVV

    Member

    I appreciate your concern, but it’s a bit besides the point. I often have proofs printed, so it’s my problem how it comes out;)

    Now I’m asking about the colour difference between Illustrator and Indesign and how to have them both export RGB docs with the same colour tint.

  • April 5, 2016 at 12:57 pm #83735
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Ari: It is generally a better choice to use RGB images in InDesign, even for an all-print workflow, unless there is a very good reason to convert to CMYK first. Claudia and I discussed this here:
    https://creativepro.com/import-rgb-images-indesign-convert-cmyk-export.php

    RWVVV: What you’re describing is a color management issue. It makes me nervous that you’re relying on Apple RGB for your document workspace rather than sRGB. They’re similar, but… Well, this is a deep subject, and I go into a lot of detail in my Lynda.com course InDesign Insider Training: Color Management.

    I have a movie in there about dealing with Illustrator docs. For example, you need to be clear whether it’s a CMYK doc in Illustrator, or an RGB document. (Only RGB AI docs get color managed.)

    • April 5, 2016 at 1:14 pm #83736
      Ari Singer

      Member

      Yes, David. I do know that. I was just referring to the overall workspace of the document.

  • April 5, 2016 at 2:52 pm #83741
    RWVVV

    Member

    Thanks David, I think I really need to finally take some time checking out how this whole colour thing works exactly. I’ve always been a bit (too) pragmatic about it.

    About the Apple RGB, I just found this out: I switched the working space to Apple RGB this morning for both apps to see if I can get the same results and I did not. In fact AI was set to monitor RGB (and RGB in doc colour mode) and ID was in Apple RGB. I just assume these were my default modes, I can’t recall ever changing this.

    I changed the settings in both apps to sRGB and voila, I see the same tints on both apps. Cool! But here’s the thing: I set both apps back to Apple RGB and turned colour management policies off and the tint difference is there. I didnt touch the management policies off this morning. Unless I am missing something, I can only conclude that ID handles Apple RGB setting differently than AI…I mean, the colour settings are exactly the same as far as I know.

    I am still quite curious what is going on exactly in this case, but I am very happy that setting it to sRGB solves the issue. It all looks so vibrant in ID now :)

    I still want to butt in a little bit into Ari’s latest comment. You’re confusing me. I mean, ID has working spaces for RGB and CMYK on at the same time. You dont choose either one. Only AI (or PS, whatever) lets you work in either RGB or CMYK mode. Am I wrong? It’s just that I mostly use RGB for all content (vectors, font colours etc), because my main publishing platform is digital. My organisation’s style colours are RGB and the supplied CMYK counterparts from the initial style designers were kind of bad. Like I said, I’m pragmatic and the digital printing work just nailed it really.

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