: 100% black problem in PDF exported from InDesign? Currently I am facing a HUGE crisis about this 100% black not being right for printing and coming out as 4 colours, in my InDesign document.

@Turnbaugh909

I just solved this problem. To note where I was coming from, I am making a book, all my blacks in the document were "Rich Black" (60/40/40/100). When I had the Indesign "Book" open, I would export it to PDF and you could tell all the blacks were dark grey. In the past I had used the same documents and created PDFs that were on the screen as 100% black (obviously as RGB).

Here is what solved it ... starting from the "book":


Click on the drop down arrow in the corner of the dialog box
Choose "Export Book to PDF ..." (you'll see it do some thinking and then you'll chose where to save it).
Next you have some options under and "Export Adobe PDF" dialog box.
Choose the high quality print, but VERY IMPORTANTLY, in the section "Options", make sure that "Optimize for Fast Web View" is NOT selected
Next, along the left is a menu. Choose "Output". In the "Color" section of this, you'll have three drop downs. For the Color Conversion drop down, choose "Convert to Destination (Preserve Numbers)", for the next drop down choose "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2", for the third "Include Destination Profile".


Then, make your booky wook and live happily ever blacker.

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@Voss6371140

This was my problem. Making it a PDF/X turns black to 100% black.

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@Sherry646

I just came across this issue and determined that the color space of my customer's InDesign document was set to RGB and not CMYK. Go to "Edit" > "Transparency Blend Space" and set it to CMYK. The blacks should be 100% now.

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@Ogunnowo857

To Export a PDF with Rich Black from InDesign go Export/Save/Output -

Then select:

Adobe PDF Preset: [Smallest File Size]

Adobe Destination: Working RGB - Apple RGB



Note this is NOT for the purpose of printing rather for sending PDFs to clients for approval.

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@Sarah814

That is just the on screen appearance of Black.

It's a bit late but this may be caused by the 'Color Settings..' being turned on. Turn off and your blacks may export at 100%K.

Please feedback if this is the case for you and it helps.

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@Caterina889

Ensure your Preferences > Appearance of Black is set to Output all Blacks Accurately for the Printing/export setting.



By default this setting is set to use Rich Black for all output blacks. Which, in my opinion, is a poor default setting.

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