Help, InDesign transparency tool changes opacity of entire document

[rangeroverhse]

Hi. I just got Adobe InDesign CS5. I have been a very long user of QuarkXpress. What I would like to do is a linear blend of

colours in an object to a design I am doing. Then I would like to change the opacity of the SELECTED OBJECT only. But for some reason when I select the object and change the opacity, it changes it to the picture that is underneath the object to a different colour blue than what was originally in the picture I created? The picture was created in Photoimpact 11, with Pantone Blue as the colour.

First, I created a new document and inserted a PNG picture that fits on the entire document as the background, that has a very bright blue background. I want to put a rectangular text box at the top with blended colours. When I create a new object, using the rectangle tool, and then put it on top of the picture, I select the rectangular box, I right click and go to Effects and then Transparency. I select the "Select for" prompt to "Fill". Then on the right side where it says "Transparency, Basic Blending" it is selected as Normal mode and I move the opacity to 64%. When I click on ok, the picture underneath changes colours to a different colour light blue for some reason?? But the thing is, the picture colour that changes to light blue, stays the same whether it is at 99% or at 1% opacity.

Why is my picture changing colours? How can I change the objects opacity to not affect the pictures colour underneath? I have been trying for hours to figure this out. When I have done this in QuarkXpress, it doesnt affect the background picture at all. The only issue is, when i convert to PDF from QuarkXpress, the pantone blue comes out a totally different colour, like a lighter blue. But when I converted this background picture in InDesign without any other objects, it came out perfect! Please help me. Thank you.

I also want to mention that I update to the latest version of InDesign CS5 7.0.3 and updated everything else, and still it was having a problem. Thanks.

[BobLevine]

Change the transparency blend space to RGB.

Note: this has been discussed over and over again. If this document is going to be printed you should get yourself very familiar with the ins and outs of transparency.

Bob

[robadoba]

why are you being so rude about it, Bob? 

[Peter Spier]

Transparency works by blending colors or overprinting. In this case it sounds like blending. In order to do that, ID must use a single color space, and that space is controlled under Edit > Transparency Blend Space....

Most likely the .png you placed as a background is RGB and the blend space is set to Document CMYK.  If you go to print, the images will eventually be converted to CMYK anyway, but you should set the blend sapce to match the color mode of the images.

[rangeroverhse]

Wow. I can't believe this.

I figured this solution out.

I fixed this problem by enabling Edit-->Transparency Blend Space-->Document RGB.

Now my background picture is just fine. Before, Transparency blend space was in CMYK. I guess that was the issue?

If anyone else has this problem, just keep this in mind!.

[rangeroverhse]

Wow. Quick answers. Thank you guys so much!

[rob day]

An RGB Blend space converts all of the objects on the page to RGB including Black text, so if you are going to a CMYK press, black text will get converted to a 4-color CMYK mix.

[oswaldvz]

I had the same issue but I managed to fix it. Go to Edit-->Transparency Blend Space-->Document RGB.