Im Uploading Photos to Teh Web and the Colors Look Dim

Why Placed Color Images Can Appear Inconsistent

Y'all place two images that have identical colors in them… but they await dissimilar! This can bulldoze you crazy. While in that location are a number of possible solutions, the most likely problem is: There'southward a colour profile mismatch somewhere! And oftentimes that mismatch is due to the fact that one or more images does not have a color profile embedded in it.

Here's one common example: I've placed ii images into InDesign… the images appear to be identical, merely at that place'southward one important difference: one of them was saved with a colour profile embedded in it, and the other was not (also called "untagged").

Now, you lot probably tin't tell the departure right at present, correct? On my screen at that place is a very tiny difference. Just when I cull View > Preview on CPU (which turns off the new—and slightly buggy—GPU rendering), you lot tin can see the differences more than:

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OK, now look what happens when I turn on View > Overprint Preview:

Holy mackerel! Remember, those two images look exactly the same in Photoshop; the RGB values are identical. So why do they appear and then different? (If you don't intendance and you just want to fix it, skim through the side by side section and caput correct for "What to do almost it.")

Tagged vs. Untagged Images

The reason is that InDesign knows what the colors are supposed to look like in the tagged epitome (the 1 with the color profile in information technology), simply it has no clue what the colors expect like in the one with no profile.

This is why the colors may await actually different when you lot import an epitome you found on the web, or exported from some elementary pixel-editing program. If at that place'due south no embedded profile, and then InDesign has no thought what the colors in that epitome are supposed to hateful. And in those situations, it applies its default RGB color contour.

Now here'due south where it gets interesting. InDesign's normal "default RGB" profile is sRGB, simply Adobe makes a big stink about how you should make sure your RGB and CMYK colour profiles are all the same in Photoshop and InDesign and Illustrator. And so a lot of people synchronize all these settings, and the issue is that InDesign'due south default RGB profile gets changed to Adobe RGB or some RGB other than sRGB.

And that is a trouble.

Every bit I wrote over a decade ago, it's a good thing to have your programs unsynchronized, and have different RGB defaults!

You well-nigh certainly desire your InDesign documents to have a default RGB profile of sRGB. Because when you lot employ sRGB, so all those web images and images from other less-reliable-than-Photoshop sources will probably expect right when yous place them.

(By the way, you do want your default CMYK profiles to friction match amidst all the Adobe programs. I'yard simply saying it's okay if the RGB profiles are different.)

What to Do About It

OK, and then what can you do about this trouble? Here are a couple ideas:

• If yous can, try to ensure every RGB image has a color profile saved with it. Photoshop saves profiles past default in the Save As dialog box, but it'due south off in Save for Web.
• Check to see what your InDesign certificate's default RGB profile is. This is harder than it should be. You can discover it by choosing Edit > Catechumen to Profile:

But don't change the profile hither! Convert to Profile is good for learning most the document, but it can cause bad things to happen if y'all change anything here. So if it says Adobe RGB or something like that, and if you lot desire to change it to sRGB, then click Cancel here, and then choose Edit > Assign Profile:

Here you can assign the sRGB profile and and so click OK. Now, every RGB image that does have a color profile embedded should look the same, but all the RGB images that accept no profile will update and probably expect far better.

(Notation that this only changes the currently open document. If you want to ensure new documents are gear up with the correct profile, use Edit > Color Settings.)

I know this seems crazy and technical, but the important lesson is: when colors don't match, then it'due south almost always a problem with either the profile not being included properly, or information technology not beingness interpreted properly in InDesign. Fortunately, these trivial steps tin can go a long style to helping you become consistent color!

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Source: https://creativepro.com/why-placed-color-images-can-appear-inconsistent/

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