InDesign and Blurb: details about embedded images and color spaces

When I export from InDesign (CS4) with the Blurb-provided export template, are embedded images converted to whatever color space Blurb can work with (sRGB or the HP CMYK profile), or are images left as their own atomic units for the printer to interpret in its own way?

I would hope I could have InDesign take all the different images (with potentially different color spaces) and spit out whatever is required for Blurb, but does it?  My source images are 16-bit ProPhoto PSDs, and I would like to leave them that that way until InDesign converts/resizes them for the final output…. but I just can’t seem to find whether it does.

This thread [ http://forums.blurb.com/forums/10/topics/6828 ] about resizing images out from under InDesign implies strongly that InDesign just passes them along as atomic units; I hope that’s not the case.

In any case, I’d like to know one way or the other, so any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi. Good questions. You are correct, Blurb’s export settings file (jobptions for Adobe programs which is included with the InDesign templates) does not convert your images to a CMYK (or any other color space). We have done this to provide the book maker with the greatest control possible and recommend that you do any color space conversions using Photoshop prior to bringing your images into InDesign. Here are our detailed recommendations for PDF to Book:
http://blurb.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/451/

I would also suggest watching this video that explains the controls and variables Photoshop provides during the CMYK conversions (you’ll have to download it MOV):
http://www.xritephoto.com/default.aspx?MenuItemID=460&MenuGroup=Products&&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#Blurb

We prefer that you use our Blurb PDF/X-3 export settings unchanged, but If you prefer can choose to do the CMYK conversion when you output the PDF from InDesign by changing that output conversion profile from “No Color Conversion” to “Convert to Destination” and select the “HP5000…” icc profile that you downloaded and installed from the FAQ I listed above. You’ll just have less control over that conversion.

Hope this helps.
Cheers, Chad

you got it and phrased it much better than I. ;-) You can also use a Photoshop action to do all the conversions too.

You are correct in that how Blurb handles color space is slightly different for BookSmart and PDF to Book. BookSmart translates everything to sRGB when you import them into BookSmart. For PDF to Book we can handle any color space, but all RGB colorspaces (such as ProPhoto) are converted to sRGB when they hit the HP Indigo RIP. However, CMYK is honored and printed as whatever CMYK profile you specify. Which is much better outlined here:
http://blurb.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/451

So, long story, yes you are correct to convert your ProPhoto images to CMYK and this can be done in Photoshop or at time of export in InDesign as you describe.
Cheers, Chad

Thanks Chad for the confirmation, and Brian for the concern.   I’m traveling with only my consumer laptop, so its monitor is very low gamut, so I don’t suppose it matters all that much :-)

(I’m the author of a fairly well-received primer on digital-image color spaces: [ http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/color-spaces-page1 ])

I ended up having InDesign convert everything to the HP5000 CMYK profile, and ordered the book. Sadly, I’ll be paying for my delay… it looks like the book is set to arrive a few hours after I depart on an 11-month trip out of the country. Doh! )-:

Chad’s link is no longer available!

CapnScrappy,

 I have questions similar to  jfriedl.  While I am comfortable with the proofing and color space conversion processes in Photoshop, I am baffled by the proper color space for the InDesign document.  I have read repeatedly in the Blurb literature that I should open the Indesign template and not change any of the settings.  The working space settings for the 7×7 indesign template are set to US Web Coated (SWOP) v2 and the Color Management Policy for CMYK is set to Preserve Numbers (Ignore Linked Profiles).  This does not seem correct to me.  If I have already converted my image file in Photoshop to the custom Blurb profile, HP5000SemimatteExp05.icc, then why would I bring it into a different color space?  Worse still is the notion that InDesign will ignore the linked ICC profile for my image.  

Can you explain this to me, please?  Are my InDesign settings incorrect?

Thank you

-Jeff

H guys,

Here’s what our PDF specialist told me before he headed home tonight:

We created these templates prior to settling on the final Blurb ICC Profile, which is why you see the generic color setting of US Web Coated SWOP. The dialog box you get when you open the template is only asking what you want to do with elements that are already on the page of the template, and since the only elements in the templates are non-printing instructions, this doesn’t come into play at all.

Bottom line is that this will not have any effect on your file, as long as you have changed the Color Settings in InDesign to your current CMYK profile. So just be sure to select your current profile as the CMYK space in the InDesign Color Settings, and when you export your PDF/X-3 files with the Blurb PDF/X-3 Export Preset it will use the current Profile as your Destination Space.

Hope this helps!

– Kathy

I was wondering about this same thing — I have added the Blurb CMYK profile to my ColorSync/Profiles folder, and I was able to access it in Photoshop to convert my images, but I can’t figure out how to set the InDesign Color Settings to the Blurb profile.

It doesn’t show up under Color Settings or Convert to Profile, but I have set the color settings to preserve embedded CMYK profiles, and left everything else as CMYK Web Coated (SWOP). Is this enough? I’m worried that the Blurb PDF export setting still lists Web Coated (SWOP) as the Destination space…

Thanks for your help!

Thanks Craig,

I hadn’t seen either of those videos – very helpful.

I did install the profile in the correct folder, and the fact that it showed up in Photoshop but not InDesign has me thinking (hoping) that this is one of those instances where restarting the computer is all that’s necessary to fix the glitch. When I tried installing the Blurb profile on my computer here at work, it showed up as expected in both Photoshop and InDesign. Now that I know it should show up in InDesign as it did in Photoshop, hopefully I can repeat the steps a few times until whatever’s going wrong works itself out. I thought I might be misunderstanding where/how it would appear.

Thanks for the quick reply,

-Ellery

Hi Craig,

Thanks for posting the links to those two video. However, the quality on those two videos are very low. It is also relatively too small and fuzzy. I don’t know if audio sounds good, but I don’t know because I am Deaf. So I have no idea, I assume that the audio sounds alright in those two. But in terms of visual perspective, it is terrible quality, actually.

I don’t know if you had tried iShowU HD Pro in the past, that is the one I use for quite some time. I recommend that Blurb should look into it and consider it as future video production for online video and training video or something like that.

Cheers, Brian (a passionately blurbarian)