Help with Colour settings in Indesign (post blurb plugin)

[elliel872539]

Hi, I've just sent a book off to Blurb to be printed via the indesign plugin, however, whenever I open up any file in Indesign, for previous files and not for the plugin, I have this pop up?

Would anyone be able to explain what it is / what are the most suitable settings to have? I know the difference between CYMK and RGB but that's about it (my next project is my final major which will eventually be printed too).

Thank you for any help

A confused student.

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Your Color Settings preferences (usually) only affect a new document's settings and do not apply to existing documents—so syncing your Color Settings wouldn't solve color management problems for existing documents.

The Profile Mismatch check boxes throw up a dialog to let you know that the opening document's assigned profiles and color management policies don't happen to match your current Color Settings. The warning dialog lets you change the existing document's profiles and policies. If you don't want to get the warning uncheck all.

[elliel872539]

Thank you - which colour settings should it be for the UK?

As I've never had these prompts before.

[rob day]

As I've never had these prompts before.

I assume Blurb provides a Color Settings setup with the Ask When ... boxes checked? If you don't want the warning uncheck the boxes.

If you are working on a new project that isn't going to Blurb you could switch to one of the default European presets which use Coated Fogra 39 as the CMYK profile before you create the document. There isn't a huge difference between SWOP and Fogra.

The assigned CMYK profile only affects the appearance of CMYK images and native CMYK colors and swatches, and assigned RGB profile only affects the appearance of RGB objects. So the current conventional wisdom is to keep all of your placed images as RGB and then you can choose the appropriate CMYK profile for the conversion to CMYK when you export the final PDF.

[elliel872539]

Thanks for your help again (Don't think these will be for blurb)

[rob day]

Also, generally I keep the Ask boxes unchecked. If I want to know what profiles are assigned the an existing document I can get them from either Edit>Assign Profiles... or Edit>Convert to Profile.

However, there is no way to know what an existing document's Color Management Policy is from the InDesign interface, but you can check the Ask boxes before you open a doc and if there is a conflict the dialog will let you keep or change the document's policy.