Why is the colour different between Print and mobile modes?

[ricda]

Hi

Im trying to figure out why the colour is different between indesign mobile document and a normal print document.

87% black should appear the same I would of thought. but in mobile mode 87% black appears darker.

do you know why that is?

indesign 12.0.0.81

thanks

ricky

[JointyJr]

Could be a  CMYK to RGB difference between the 2 colour modes?

... or colour profiles?

[Danny Whitehead.]

The black swatch in a print document represents a solid black ink printed on paper (C:0 M:0 Y:0 K:100), whereas the black swatch in a mobile document represents the darkest colour possible on-screen (R:0 G:0 B:0), which is darker than black ink.

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Also, the document RGB and CMYK profile assignments would change the appearance of the tinted RGB and CMYK blacks. Here are black 87% RGB and CMYK fills (RGB on the left):

sRGB vs. US Newsprint (SNAP 2007). The newsprint profile shows 87% black as brownish with less value, which is what will happen on press when the ink hits the yellowish, absorbent newsprint.

AppleRGB vs. Photoshop 5 Default. AppleRGB's 1.8 gamma is less than sRGB's 2.1, so the black appearance is lighter. The legacy Photoshop 5 profile always displays black as absolute black and does not account for paper stock or variations in black ink color.

[Danny Whitehead.]

Are you working on content for both print and mobile, and want that dark grey to be consistent across different media? That's a fairly complicated business, so you'll need some knowledge of colour management.

If an 80% tint of black in a print document is your starting point, first you'll need to establish what targets (FOGRA, GraCol etc) your printers work to. Then, using Photoshop, you'll need to convert that 80% black to sRGB (you'll never account for all the different screens, brightness setting etc, but sRGB is about as good a target as you can get), and use that in your mobile work.

[rob day]

Then, using Photoshop, you'll need to convert that 80% black to sRGB (you'll never account for all the different screens, brightness setting etc, but sRGB is about as good a target as you can get), and use that in your mobile work.

Danny, I'm not sure the Photshop step is needed. Any screen designing you do in InDesign would need some kind of export (i.e., JPEG for slicing an HTML page, Interactive PDF). The color managed conversion from your CMYK print space (whatever it is), to sRGB could happen with either an image, or PDF export. Interactive PDF's convert to sRGB by default. In virtually all cases CMYK to sRGB produces little or no change in color appearance.

[ricda]

Thank you all for your reply.

some background:

I have been making digital magazines from the printed magazine. Recently after upgrading indesign I have noticed the colour variation being darker.

It never use to be different only when I upgraded indesign. I use to be able to create a .swf file as an interactive graphic to be placed into the digital magazine and the colour would be seamless. But now the colour on an 87% black appears darker, which means I have to use

the whole panel instead of just a portion otherwise the variation is noticeable.

I had looked at the different colour modes. RGB and CMYK, I usually check whats new before upgrading never thought it would effect

the colour. Thank you all for your opinions.

cheers

ric

[rob day]

I usually check whats new before upgrading never thought it would effect the colour. Thank you all for your opinions.

Nothing has changed with color management in recent versions. The color profile you assign to a document has always affected the appearance of any color including black and its tints. Perhaps you were using different color management preferences before? Also check your Appearance of Black preference, which might affect the appearance of darker tints of CMYK black.