Darkening Background

[StStephensAdmin]

I have created a master page (although the same happened when the background was 'placed' instead) with my background on. Every time I place something on top of the background, the background gets darker. Any ideas why?

( FYI I am a complete newb when it comes to indesign and will hopefully be organising myself onto a course soon)

[Anna Lander]

Share please the screenshots:

1. the page before placing anything

2. After placing anything/

Now the problem is not clear enough.

[StStephensAdmin]

without placement

[StStephensAdmin]

with placement

[Anna Lander]

make please one more screen with View menu open. Looks like if you turn on Proof Colors view mode

[StStephensAdmin]

is this what you mean?

[rob day]

Your placed object contains transparency which invokes the Transparency Blend Space. A CMYK blend space converts the preview of your background to show how it will output to print. You can change the blend space to RGB and keep the RGB preview (Edit>Transparency Blend Space), but if your document will be printed the CMYK conversion will still happen at output.

[StStephensAdmin]

ah. i definitely need print it. and the logo needs to be transparent. any suggestions or just suck it up and have a darker background?

[rob day · Accepted solution]

If you are going to place RGB images you have to have some understanding of color gamuts. When you are editing in Photoshop turning on Proof Colors with the Proof Setup set to Working CMYK, will preview the expected color shift when the RGB colors get converted to CMYK.

With InDesign you can do the same by turning on Overprint Preview. When working on print projects you'll want to always have Overprint or Separation Preview turned on.