Creating PDFs with color unchanged

[TeresaS]

InD CS 4 (6.0.1), Mac OS 10.5.6

Hope someone can help.
Creating PDFs from InD to view on screen in a training session to show and understand the colour differences from different colour profiles. Images converted into cmyk and saved with different embedded cmyk profiles. Placed in InD. InD and Bridge colour settings set up correctly, customised to Fogra 39 as cmyk working space. Export from Indesign using Press Quality settings modified to ensure that the Output is set to 'leave colour unchanged' and 'include all profiles'.

When PDF checked with Pitstop the images all show the same colour profile as the default document profile.

What am I doing wrong? How can I create PDFs where the colour is unchanged? Why is InD changing the colour when the setting used is leave colour unchanged?

help appreciated.
Thanks
Teresa

 

[oxburger]

Not sure if this will make a difference, but did you go into "Edit > Color Settings" and set up your document there? Or is that what you were saying when you said "InD and Bridge colour settings set up correctly"?

Color Management Policies > Preserve Embedded Profiles

Also, are the profiles that different that you'd actually see a difference on a monitor?

Found this under InDesign's help:

When you create Adobe PDFs for commercial printing, you can specify how color information is represented. The easiest way to do this is using a PDF/X standard; however, you can also specify color-handling options manually in the Output section of the PDF dialog box. For more information about PDF/X and how to create PDFs, search Help.

In general, you have the following choices for handling colors when creating PDFs:

(PDF/X‑3) Does not convert colors. Use this method when creating a document that will be printed or displayed on various or unknown devices. When you select a PDF/X‑3 standard, color profiles are automatically embedded in the PDF.

(PDF/X‑1a) Converts all colors to the destination CMYK color space. Use this method if you want to create a press-ready file that does not require any further color conversions. When you select a PDF/X‑1a standard, no profiles are embedded in the PDF.

(Illustrator and InDesign) Converts colors that have embedded profiles to the destination color space, but preserves the numbers for those colors without embedded profiles. You can manually select this option in the Output section of the PDF dialog box. Use this method if the document contains CMYK images that aren’t color-managed and you want to make sure that the color numbers are preserved.
Note: All spot color information is preserved during color conversion; only the process color equivalents convert to the designated color space.

Are you exporting PDF/X-3 or PDF/x-1a or are you using a different PDF preset? According to this, you should be using PDF/X-3 to automatically embed the color profiles.

 

[TeresaS]

Thanks. I think you've set me on the right course. I had missed that under edit>colour settings there was something on colour management policies where I had forgotten to set Preserve Embedded profiles.

Will retry this exercise tomorrow with this change.

I will also try PDF/x-3. But usually this is exactly the same as setting it up to 'leave colour unchanged'. Or at least it was the same in CS2. (I only upgraded to CS4 yesterday).

And by the way the profiles were sufficiently different. Some from looking at the whole colour image, some more so when comparing the black plate, or the CMY plates.

Thanks for your help.