Embed causes rich black – a mystery in several acts

Greetings,

I have been consulting on the color management of a printed project, a  
72-page booklet for the local chamber of commerce.

Built entirely in InDesign, it contains legacy CMYK (some images  
contain embedded profiles and some do not), text and graphics created  
in InDesign, and a number of new images taken this year that were left  
in RGB color with the original camera profile embedded within.

The work flow is to make CMYK PDF directly from InDesign (using PDF  
Presets in InDesign), and then the printer uses the PDF to enter his  
Rampage work flow to make plates on an Agfa Galileo platesetter.

The printer made a special effort to run Idealiance G7 first, then  
printed an IT8.7 target, which was read with an iOne Pro, and I made  
the profile in ProfileMaker Pro using GCR2.

I need to know if any of you have had a similar experience.

Yesterday morning I attended a press check at the printing plant where  
the cover was on press as a work-and-turn. Everything was fine. I  
signed the press sheet, and they ran the job.

Later in the day I was summoned to another press check of one of the  
inside forms, 8 pages of color ads and editorial material prepared to  
print sheetwise.

When I got there on Sunday afternoon, they were washing-up the press.  
They gave up because all of the text, which had been created in  
InDesign, was printing in CMYK – all four colors. The black was not  
solid (it was probably 97%) and the C,M and Y were all underprinting  
the black. It created a situation that was unworkable, so they quit  
for the day.

The rich black was in the PDF created by the designer.

I went back to the designer's studio and worked with the designer to  
figure out how this had happened.

We tested the same pages several different ways, among them (in both  
cases we replace the default SWOP profile with the press profile I  
made in PMP):

1. PDF Presets>Press Quality>Output>Convert to Destination (Preserve  
Numbers) AND "Include Destination Profile"

2. PDF Presets>Press Quality>Output>Convert to Destination (Preserve  
Numbers) AND "Don't Include Profiles"

In case 1, all of the black text in the document is converted to CMYK  
rich black, as described above.

In case 2, the black remains solid, and has no other colors  
underneath; it is simple 100% K black.

In both cases everything else in the document is converted to CMYK  
(including the RGB).

We tried this several times to check our sanity, and it does this 100%  
of the time, so embedding the destination profile (which isn't  
necessary in this work flow) seems to be the cause of the creation of  
rich black.

Has anyone ever seen this? Has anyone any idea why this happens?

Best wishes,

Brian P. Lawler
Color Consultant & College Professor
San Luis Obispo, California

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