Is there a place to set my L*a*b* values to D65 instead of D50 in indesign?

[cbishop01]

Just like the Title asks.  Is there a way to set this in indesign?  The Lab values are quite different from each other. So if i try to match the Lab's on screen it dont work.  Right now its displaying as D50  I need it to be D65.  Thats what our Ink company sends the inks as and thats what i would like to display in indesign if possible.  This is more for when i double click on the color to get the Lab values Not really worried about it displaying in D65.

Thank you

Chris bishop

[rob day]

No. If you make a Lab color or swatch in InDesign it is converted into your system's monitor profile for display. If you want the target white point to be D65 you would have to create a monitor profile set to 6500. The other Adobe print apps work the same way.

[cbishop01]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/rob+day  wrote

No. If you make a Lab color or swatch in InDesign it is converted into your system's monitor profile for display. If you want the target white point to be D65 you would have to create a monitor profile set to 6500. The other Adobe print apps work the same way.

If i calibrate my monitor to 6500 indesign will automatically Change the Lab values?  or am i not understanding?

[rob day · Accepted solution]

If i calibrate my monitor to 6500 indesign will automatically Change the Lab values?  or am i not understanding?

No, but your monitor profile would affect the display of the Lab value. The device independent Lab value would have to be converted into your monitor's RGB space in order to be displayed, so the monitor profile would have an affect on that conversion.

[rob day]

Thats what our Ink company sends the inks as and thats what i would like to display in indesign if possible.

Do you mean custom Spot color inks?

[cbishop01]

All spots and CMYK. And thank both of you guys for answering. 

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

You could try the following:

CIE Color Calculator

Enter in Lab values and select D65 and press the Lab button, then select D50 and press the XYZ button and note the new Lab values converted into D50 to match InDesign.

Good luck!

[cbishop01]

I already have the Lab values from The ink company i just want to make sure that they are keeping the Correct Lab values.  Meaning i dont want them to stray too far from Pantones values.  I have used this website before.  And actually i have created a very indepth Excel file that tracks all the lab and Delta values for everything.

[rob day]

Meaning i dont want them to stray too far from Pantones values.

There's nothing you can do about that—if you make a swatch using provided Lab values, InDesign won't alter those values.

The Lab values Pantone provides would be instrument read from printed swatches, the illumination of the printed inks could affect the Lab readings, but so would the ink density and the accuracy of the ink mixing, so there would always be some variance. If you believe your ink company is getting more accurate Lab readings from their press sheets, then you would want to use those values and ignore Pantone's versions.

In the case of spot colors, the Lab values only affect the display and not the output because the spot color would be output to a separate plate.