Grayscale images in pdf documents

[zman]

Customer provides native files for Ad...Created in Indesign. Image files are .tif grayscale images with all CMM off. Pdfs are created from Indesign. Sent to Epson 7900 G7 profiled and proofed. Then we proofed grayscale images as randoms imported to efi rip and proof with same CMM. Images look much better than placed images as .pdf. Kodak Prinergy uses the pdf workflow, so using pages and links is out. Customer likes the way .tif images look for press! Not the pdf.
Any help!

Thx
zman

[Greg_Firestone]

Hi zman,

What are your color management settings in InDesign? Also, what are your RIP color management settings?

Greg

[zman]

I am testing for a contemperary, and he tells me all color management in Indesign is off prior to generating pdf!

[leonardr]

I am testing for a contemperary, and he tells me all color management in Indesign is off prior to generating pdf!

Are you generating a "generic" PDF or a PDF/X file (or some variety)?

"Grayscale" is also a somewhat general term - was it MONOCHROME (1 bit), 8 bit color (either Gray, RGB or CMYK), or something else?

[zman]

Original file was a stock 8 bit grayscale file, for single color Black output. Gradation is being effected somehow...they should rip the same but are not?

[leonardr]

Original file was a stock 8 bit grayscale file, for single color Black output. Gradation is being effected somehow...they should rip the same but are not?

Depends on what "stock 8 bit grayscale" translates to in technical terms. Could it have had an ICC profile attached to it? Could it have been converted to RGB grayscale? Is it using Spot Black vs. the K-channel of CMYK.

And then what are the RIP settings, especially for black handling...

[rich apollo]

what settings are you using to create the PDFs? Do the images appear to be the same in the PDFs as they were on the InDesign pages? Open the resulting PDF in Acrobat, use the Object Touch-up tool to select an image, right-click, select edit image. In Photoshop you should be able to determine if there has been any change to the image.

Color management cannot be "off" in InDesign.