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• • May 8, 2017 at 4:37 pm #94333
    Laura Sutherland

    Participant

    We process our color images for our scientific journals as CMYK tiffs (for printing). Online, our articles are available as full text and PDF. We recently switched vendors for our online conversion, and we’re now delivering images to them as part of an InDesign package (in the past, images had been extracted from the PDFs). In our first week after the switch, the CMYK tiffs didn’t survive conversion to full text intact (they were automatically converted to gifs, and we saw major color/quality issues). We’re trying to find the easiest way to get our CMYK tiffs to the vendor as RGB jpegs. Image Processor in Photoshop is an option, but it converts all images to RGB (not necessary for grayscale) and it can’t do anything with our bitmapped tiffs (e.g., flow charts and other line art). Tagging images within InDesign and exporting images as XML seemed promising, but tagging can be labor-intensive, and it exports images at 72 dpi (we want 300 dpi, for high-res/enlarging options on the site). Are there other options for exporting images from InDesign, or is this something for which a script could be written (e.g., an add on at the packaging stage)? Thanks.

  • May 8, 2017 at 4:39 pm #94355
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    A script could probably be written, but I just have to say that there is a slightly simpler (and better) answer: Stop converting your RGB images to CMYK before placing them in InDesign! That’s so 20th century! :-)

    https://creativepro.com/import-rgb-images-indesign-convert-cmyk-export.php

  • May 9, 2017 at 6:36 am #94370
    Laura Sutherland

    Participant

    Mind blown. (Thank you!)

  • May 9, 2017 at 6:58 am #94371
    Laura Sutherland

    Participant

    One follow-up question: Do you know if jpeg vs. tiff still matters for print quality? I’ve always provided tiffs (CMYK, no less!), but for the online version, tiffs would get converted to gifs. The vendor doing the conversion doesn’t touch jpegs, so jpeg is the safer bet, but I don’t want the quality of images in our print journals to suffer. Thanks again.

  • May 10, 2017 at 2:27 am #94419
    Wolfgang Böhm

    Member

    IMHO it is very unprofessional to automatically convert all the images to CMYK when exporting. You need to see what happens and edit in RGB if necessary to get the best possible representation of your images in print. You need to know which color combinations work better in print an which don’t (greens with magentas etc.). Get a CMYK profile from your printer and do the converting manually if you want the best possible quality.
    True, there are situations where some quality needs to be sacrificed for efficiency …

    Concerning the follow up question: There is no inherent quality loss when using JPEGs – especially if you receive JPEGs fro the client, there’s no need to switch formats.

  • May 10, 2017 at 2:44 pm #94454
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Laura: Regarding TIF vs JPEG, yes there is definitely a difference. However, as long as you’re not re-saving the JPG repeatedly, and you’re using a High Quality jpeg, it’s usually not terrible. But JPEG is lossy. You can read all about file formats here:
    https://creativepro.com/tiff-vs-psd-vs-eps-vs-pdf-vs.php

    Wolfgang: I don’t mean to offend, but you really need to join us in the 21st century. I agree that CMYK preview is important, but you can do that without damaging your images. (Converting to CMYK = massive damage.) Here are some suggestions:

    RGB Workflow from Photoshop to Final PDF

  • May 10, 2017 at 3:37 pm #94467
    Laura Sutherland

    Participant

    Thanks to you both! I definitely understand about the lossy quality of jpegs (I’m from the old CMYK tiffs school). But part of the problem we were encountering was images being automatically converted from tiff to gif by our vendor for our full-text versions (who converts from collected InDesign output); they use jpegs untouched. We only save the images (which are usually author-supplied jpegs) one time; we’ll test to be sure, but I think we’ll be ok. And on the RGB front, my printer has already sent color profiles to convert to CMYK when exporting to PDF. It’s a new world, but I’m adapting! Thanks again.

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