• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Can't export to RGB pdf - Indesign CS6

New Here ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi there,

I'm trying to export a web pdf with RGB color settings but it doesn't work. Everything looks good in the Indesign document and I've switched to RGB transparency blend space. When I export to a interactive pdf it comes out as a CMYK pdf and when I try a print pdf i just get the error: "1 problem (1 failure) was found with a background task: mydocument.pdf"

What could be wrong??

Views

57.5K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The RGB Colour Setting is only for how Transparency interacts - it's not a RGB setting for the entire document.

To make the PDF into RGB you need to go to the File>Export and choose PDF (INteractive) and that should make it RGB, but this has Spreads turned on by default in CS5.5 and prior, I think this was fixed in CS6.

If you are exporting from CS5.5 or below then choose PDF (Print) and choose the smallest file size option, and that is automatically set to convert to RGB - you can check that out in the Output area of the PDF Export Dialog Box.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Ok so I go to File>Export and choose PDF (INteractive) with pages instead of spreads, but that doesn't work. It still comes out as CMYK.....

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 02, 2012 Oct 02, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

How are you checking that it's coming out as CMYK?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I can see it on the colors. Our company logo is green, black and white and the green color tone in the logo is wrong on the exported pdf. I've done pdf documents in Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher with the logo and then the green tone is correct. I can also compare the pdf with the indesign document an see a clear difference in color tones.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Is the logo a spot color? If you have to export to interactive try converting the spot color to process. If you don't need interactive try exporting as PDF/X-4.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The logo has a green gradient so I guess that means it's not a spot color logo? How do I convert spot color to process? I want this pdf to be suited for the web so then I should use the INteractive export, right?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 03, 2012 Oct 03, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The logo has a green gradient so I guess that means it's not a spot color logo?

A gradient can be made with a spot color. Spot colors have a spot color icon in the Swatches panel. You should be able to double-click the swatch and change it to process:

Screen shot 2012-10-03 at 10.31.33 AM.png

I want this pdf to be suited for the web so then I should use the INteractive export, right?

Are there interactive elements like buttons? If not PDF/X-4 should keep color unchanged.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 05, 2012 Oct 05, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The logo is made i Photoshop so I can't change it. There are no interactive elements in the pdf. Tried the PDF/X-4 but it didn't help. Is it impossible to export with RGB colors???

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 05, 2012 Oct 05, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Is it impossible to export with RGB colors???

No.  It sounds like you might have an RGB profile conflict—it could be something like a conversion from AdobeRGB to sRGB that shifts the color. Can you post a screen capture that shows the differences?

In Acrobat Pro you can check the color space of page items via Output Preview>Show. If you select CMYK does the logo show?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 09, 2012 Oct 09, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

To export compliant RGB PDF documents, you need to "Print..." to the Adobe PDF printer profile.  The Export... will not get compliant documents, but going via the print driver will.  I am on Windows, and noticed the color shifts in Reader as well, did some exploring and by using the Print to PDF I get RGB PDF files that do not shift color.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 09, 2012 Oct 09, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Compliant to what—a PDF/X standard? Exported PDF/X-4 documents pass compliance preflight in AcrobatPro without a problem.

Maybe this a Windows thing, but on OSX I don't have any problem exporting RGB colors and getting them to preview the same in the latest versions of Acrobat, Reader, and Preview. Here's an out-of-gamut green exported as PDF/X-4:

Screen shot 2012-10-09 at 2.27.27 PM.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 09, 2012 Oct 09, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Me either…on Windows. Sounds like something very specific to the user’s system or user error.

Bob

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 09, 2012 Oct 09, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

In AcrobatPro the default simulation profile for a PDF/X-4 is the Output Intent profile which has to be a print profile—usually CMYK—so the green can preview as CMYK or RGB depending on the chosen simulation profile.

I think in earlier versions of Reader the display of PDF/X-4 was also through the Output Intent, so it might be the Reader version.

Screen shot 2012-10-09 at 5.03.14 PM.png

Screen shot 2012-10-09 at 5.03.24 PM.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I've been having the same issue.  If I print to PDF the issue does not occur, but I needed to Export as a PDF because the interactive doc format maintains hyperlinks.  After much frustration I've found that the issue is linked to having any semi-transparent element on a page. 

Each of the images are different pages from the same document. As you can see if there is a PNG with transparency, or a JPEG with a transparency applied in InDesign, the colors appear as CMYK "For Print" rather than the expected RGB.

Note that this document was setup for web (Document Setup > Intent > Web).

1.png

2.png

3.png

4.png

Unless there are some settings that I'm missing this sure seems like a bug Adobe should fix.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Where are you viewing the exported PDF? If it's AcrobatPro you might have a CMYK simulation profile set.

I tried exporting an interactive PDF with your colors and transparency, and it previewed correctly in AcrobatPro (sRGB simulation), Reader, and Preview. Here's AcrobatPro with different simulations:

Screen shot 2012-10-26 at 5.35.35 PM.png

SWOP:

Screen shot 2012-10-26 at 5.35.59 PM.png

Reader 9.5, Preview 5.03, Safari:

Screen shot 2012-10-26 at 5.44.13 PM.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

nauchilaan wrote:

Unless there are some settings that I'm missing this sure seems like a bug Adobe should fix.

Well, what settings are you using?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Also, make sure your Transparency Blend Space is RGB

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you both for the quick reply.

Rob: I'm using Acrobat X to view.  It seems that if CMYK simulation profile was set then all of the pages would render the same .  The only variable on these images was the transparency but they render differently in the same document.  Your test appears to be using a solid block of color with the transparency set to ~50%. I just check and yes, that form of transparency works fine.  Please try again using a PNG 24 with transparency or by using the Gradient Feather Tool on an imported image.  BTW, the transparency blend space is set to Document RGB.

Peter:  If there are settings that are affecting this outcome that I'm not aware of then I can't really tell you what those settings are. Please let me know which settings I should report back on.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

We need to know waht the transparency blend space is set for in ID and what PDF preset yiou are using (or if not using a preset, what acrobat compatibility is being used, and what settings you are using for color in the Output screen of the export dialog (for a print PDF) or give a screen capture of the interactive export dialog.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Blend space is RGB:

5.jpg

I am not using a PDF preset for export.  I'm selecting "Export...", selecting "Adobe PDF (Interactive)" from the "Save as" menu...

5B.jpg

And then exporting with the default settings in the dialog:

6.jpg

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Please try again using a PNG 24 with transparency or by using the Gradient Feather Tool on an imported image.  BTW, the transparency blend space is set to Document RGB.

The color here is a placed JPEG—set your simulation profile to sRGB

Screen shot 2012-10-26 at 7.30.17 PM.png

It seems that if CMYK simulation profile was set then all of the pages would render the same .

The Transparency Blend Space in Acrobat could be different check the flattener preview:

Screen shot 2012-10-26 at 7.34.31 PM.png

What does your PDF look like in Acrobat Reader?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 26, 2012 Oct 26, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Rob, thank you, this was very helpful.  The document appeared correctly in Acrobat Reader so the issue seemed to be with Acrobat Pro.   The first suggestion didn't seem to help.  Switching the simulation profile momentarily changes the look of the document, but upon closing the Output Preview dialog the colors switch back.

However, the second suggestion worked.  Changing the Transparency Blend Space, applying it to the entire document, and then saving it appears to permanently change the doc - even when closing and re-opening in Acrobat Pro.   It solves the problem, but only for that particular document.  As a test, I exported another version of the same file from InDesign and I ran into the same issue.  Even though the problem appears in Acrobat Pro it still seems like this is a problem with the ouput from InDesign. 

Will I need to change the Transparency Blend Space for every document I output from InDesign inside Acrobat Pro or is there some setting in InDesign that will solve this issue?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 27, 2012 Oct 27, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Will I need to change the Transparency Blend Space for every document I output from InDesign inside Acrobat Pro or is there some setting in InDesign that will solve this issue?

I'm not sure why you are getting a CMYK blend space with an interactive PDF—I always get an sRGB blend space with ID interactive PDFs.

Are you actually making edits in AcrobatX? Why not just preview in Reader or a browser?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 29, 2012 Oct 29, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I want it to show up properly in Acrobat X because of others reviewing the document.  At this point I have a work-around so I'm good.  Thank you for all the help.  It is much appreciated.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines