HP Designjet Printers - Accurate Colors from Adobe InDesign CS

note:

EPS, PDF, and grayscale images do not allow page-layout applications to manage their colors. In addition, such images are displayed very poorly on a monitor.

1. Open Adobe InDesign and select Color Settings from the Edit menu.
   • Working spaces: The working space is the color space the user wants to use when manipulating the image. HP recommends using the color space that comes with the image if any. Click here to go to Color Management Policies. Otherwise, the recommended default settings are:
     • RGB: Adobe RGB 1998
     • CMYK: SWOP for the USA and Euroscale Coated v2 for the rest of the world
   • Color Management Policies: Select Preserve Embedded Profiles.
   • Rendering Intent: Rendering intent is one of the settings used when doing a color transformation. Some of the colors to be printed may not be reproducible by the printer. The rendering intent allows the user to select one of the four different ways of handling these colors.
   • Black Point Compensation: This option is recommended if the Relative Colorimetric rendering intent has been chosen.
     Figure : Color Settings

     
2. Create or open the image with its own or the most appropriate color space. Then retouch the image as needed.
3. When the image is ready to be sent to the output device, that is the moment to simulate on the printer what will appear on the output device. Convert the image from the source or work profile to the output CMYK device, and then again from the output CMYK device to the printer profile (calibrated).
   In InDesign, HP recommends the Proof Setup command (Go to View then Proof Setup and then select Custom). This command lets the user select the 'proof profile' in the source space when printing. A simulation can also be seen on the monitor. HP also recommends the following:
   Figure : Proof Setup

   
   Each object in InDesign has its own color management. The InDesign elements (native) use the working spaces (default profiles) and the rendering intent defined in Color Settings, and the placed objects have their own assigned profile and rendering intent. Then, each element is converted from its own color space to the simulation color space, using its own rendering intent.
   • Profile: Select the profile that corresponds to the device to be emulated. (usually a particular press profile or a standard press profile)
   • Paper White: This checkbox emulates the whiteness of the paper on the monitor. The effect is the same as using the Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent.
   • Ink Black: This checkbox turns off the black point compensation for the rendering from simulation to the monitor. So, if the simulation space black is lighter than the monitor black, the user will see the washed-out blacks on the monitor. This option is not recommended.
4. Select File then Print to print the image, converting it to an output space that depends on the printer, the paper type, and the print quality.
   • Select the Output tab (on the left), and then select Composite CMYK, in order to see the CMYK profiles.
   • Select the Color Management tab to see the following options.
   • Source Space: Select Proof to emulate the proof color space.
   • Profile: Choose the profile based on the printer model and paper type intended to be used.
   • Intent: Select Relative Colorimetric or Absolute Colorimetric. The only difference is that Absolute Colorimetric emulates the background color of the paper to be used by the press, while Relative Colorimetric maps the paper color of the press to the paper color of the printer.
   Figure : Print settings