Expert: Glen Demers - 2/17/2011

Question
I am a self-taught, trial-by-error graphic designer. I work for a small magazine, and I recently made the switch from using QuarkXpress to InDesign to pull the magazine together. When I used to use Quark, when I was pdf-ing a section of the magazine to send to press, I would choose CMYK color mode in the pdf dialog box in Quark, and it was almost as if Quark would FORCE the whole thing to be CMYK, even if a logo here or a photo there were actually RGB. But now that I'm using InDesign, I'm having all these problems come back from the printing company. I'll send a section to press, and they'll email back and say, "a logo/photo/graphic on pages X, Y, and Z is in RGB. Please fix."

When I design individual ads, I export them as a pdf, and then when I pull sections of the magazine together, I place the PDF of each ad into the section. When I pull the sections together, I use the File>Package feature on Indesign to check for RGB before exporting a pdf of the section.

Many of the problems that come back from the printer are cases where, the "Package" showed me no signs of RGB in the SECTION (individual pdfs imported into a 16-page doc), but when I open up the original InDesign file for the specific ad in question, it will show me an RGB logo that got missed. So, why doesn't the SECTION 'package' show me the presence of RGB in that case?

The rest of the problems are camera-ready pages that were submitted by clients as pdfs. Again, I'm given no warning from "Package" when I'm pulling the section together in InDesign, but the printer emails back occasionally and says, "X and Y are RBG". How can I circumvent this?

Another question is - we have some sections of the magazine that are B/W. Back in old Quark, I could choose "grayscale" color mode when I was pdf-ing the section, and it would force the whole section to become grayscale, even if there was a CMYK item in there. Is there such a thing in InDesign?

Answer
Hi Carrie,

When making PDF's out of InDesign go to File>Export and select either PDF/X-1a or Press Quality from the presets to make sure everything is CMYK.

If you are using another preset or your own, in the Export Adobe PDF dialog box click on Output in the left column. In the color conversion section select Convert to Destination and select a CMYK profile for the destination.

I don't know of a way to make sure PDF's are grayscale.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more InDesign tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/indesign.htm