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A lot of designers think CMYK is the way to go when designing for print. We will, of course, always use CMYK-based ink, but this does not mean you have to work with CMYK files. You can work with RGB images to perfectly optimize your print colors and save a great deal of time in the process.
After clicking Apply, the setting you have specified will be applied to Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat.
The top part of this image is a SoftProof of how this RGB image will appear when printed in a newspaper. The bottom part shows the original sRGB. The dirty color is actually the color of the paper. As you can see, the color of the paper affects all other colors.
Images are all converted at the same time instead of one at a time before you import each into InDesign. You can reuse the same image for different purposes. For instance, you might want to re-use the image on your website for a brochure, magazine or newspaper. If you let InDesign do the color conversion, it will optimize your RGB images for whatever output device and type of paper you choose. You can simulate how the colors in a layout will appear on different kinds of paper using the same RGB images.
When you use Photoshop to convert all of your images to CMYK before importing them into your InDesign layouts, you prevent InDesign from optimizing the color for different output devices and paper types. If you make the conversion to CMYK first and start designing later, you might unwittingly alter the maximum ink and other
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important color-related characteristics that were pre-defined in your Photoshop file when Photoshop converted your RGB image to CMYK. As a result, when you work on the colors and contrast later, what you see on screen wont be what you get in print because you have altered the optimal colors.
Newspaper: ISOnewspaper Magazines: ISOWebcoated Full Color Offset: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 ISOCated_v2 ISOuncoated Europe ISOCoated FOGRA27 (or the new one, FOGRA39)
When you export the document to PDF, the RGB images will convert to CMYK, and all of your spot colors will remain unchanged. I recommend that you check the color separations in Adobe Acrobat to make sure that everything that needs to overprint has been set to Overprint (Advanced Print Production Output Preview). The cover of a brochure for a well-known Dutch beer brand. Adobe InDesigns Separations Preview shows the RGB image in CMYK. Scene 2 shows the parts that will be highlighted using a glossy ultraviolet coating. Scene 3 is the part that will be embossed. Scene 4 shows all of the colors combined. (The combined image looks a bit weird because the UV coating and embossed parts have been given a extra spot color so that the printer can keep them separate from the full-color artwork).
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