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[Jon Morgan]

Have an InDesign CS3 document with many placed TIFF images that were built from the same background image but have different foreground content. On one of the images, the TAC in parts of the foreground needed to be reduced to satisfy press conditions/requirements, so I:

1. Open the offending image in Photoshop.
2. Sampled a small area of the image that was already well below our TAC threshold and noted the 4-color values.
3. Used Photoshop's "Covert to Profile" function and applied a simple UCR profile and confirmed that the offending areas of the image were now at or below the needed TAC threshold).
4. Re-sampled that same small area of the image and found that the 4-color values did NOT change (which I expected) .
5. Saved the updated TIFF image WITHOUT embedding the UCR profile.
6. Updated the image in InDesign and exported to PDF.
7. Opened the PDF in Acrobat and used the Output Preview function to sample that same small area and found considerable color differences between the image that was UCR'ed and all the rest (remember, all the images have the same background (just different foreground content).

I...
1. Did not embed the UCR profile upon saving the TIFF image.
2. Chose no color conversion and not to include/embed any profiles during the PDF making process.

Why did the color change????!!!!

Perhaps my InDesign color settings are flawed? I've never been able to get a straight answer as to what the correct settings should be for a commercial printer. Perhaps using the "Convert To Profile" feature is not the best way to handle simple color changes like what I did?

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks,
Jon Morgan
Hopkins Printing