Printed color difference between InDesign andApple's Pages program.

[Joseph Chamberlain]

Dear members:

I have created documents in Pages that I later decided to re-create in InDesign as I didn't have in Pages the same degree of control over the layout as I now have in InDesign.

One problem I noticed is the fact that colors printed on paper don't look the same. I basically copied the RGB values used in Pages for the different colors and used these same values in InDesign. Although on screen colors look the same, on paper they look quite different. In case this information is important I am using an Epson printer model R1800.

Any ideas ?

Thank you again for your help.

Joseph Chamberlain

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Here's a guess: Pages is probably just using the color management settings in your Epson printer's driver.

If you have InDesign CS2, it is using color management controls set in Edit > Color Settings. Its default when printing is to control the color management. If you also have color management turned on in your Epson printer driver, you're double-color managing, which is a "no no."

[Mike Witherell]

I would guess that Pages and the Mac OS ColorSync are defaulting to sRGB as a colorspace when passing the numbers to the Epson printer driver, no? You would have to dig down into the Epson printer driver and find the advanced feature that says No Color Management. That would help you know whether you are getting color shift from double color management in the printing foodchain. You would also have to check on InDesign's color settings to see if it is setup for a color space like what the Mac OS and Pages are using. Under InDesign's color settings, you might choose General Purpose, which does use the sRGB color space.

Keeping color space harmonized is a big key to sameness of color.

Mike Witherell

[Buko@adobeforums.com]

Keeping color space harmonized is a big key to sameness of color.




well said.

Is Pages even color managed?

[Mike Witherell]

I don't know, but my guess is it relies on Mac OS ColorSync.

Mike

[Joseph Chamberlain]

Steve, Mike and Buko:

It took me a while to respond because I just now had the chance to try your suggestions.

Following your posts, I turned off color management in InDesign and printed the document again. This time color always perfect. The colors I used in Pages now look the same when I print the documents from InDesign.

Thank you very much for the help once again. I really appreciate your willingness to help and to share what you know.

Best regards,

Joseph Chamberlain

[Buko@adobeforums.com]

I turned off color management in InDesign and printed the document again.
This time color always perfect.




Turning off color management is not the best idea even though it is the solution in this case. You really need to learn to work with color management.

Pages is not color managed as it is for people without a clue and will most likely be causing headaches for prepress folk soon.