Output panel
This panel provides control over color separation. Most of its options are available only when a PostScript printer is targeted. If a non-PostScript printer is targeted, the Color menu, Text as
Black option, and Simulate Overprint option are available, but others are not.
The Output panel controls how color is sent to the output device.
In-RIP separations and Adobe In-RIP Trapping are available in the Output panel. For information about RIPs that support Adobe In-RIP Trapping, contact the following Adobe OEM partners who have licensed Adobe In-RIP Trapping: Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.,
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, Information Presentation Tech, Inc., Monotype Prepress, and
RIPit Computer Corporation.
Color: Determines how document color is sent to the printer, using the following options:
• Composite Leave Unchanged. Sends output but doesn’t convert color to the color space of the output device. Useful if you want all color conversion to be done by the device or if you want to send CMYK and RGB data to the output device.
• Composite Gray. Sends grayscale output. Any colors are converted to their gray equivalents.
Useful for sending output to a composite black-and-white printer, such as a desktop laser printer.
• Composite RGB. Sends full-color composite RGB output. Useful for sending output to RGBbased output devices such as inkjet printers or film recorders.
• Composite CMYK. Sends full-color composite CMYK output. Useful for sending output to proofing devices or other composite CMYK workflows. Note that this color output mode converts spot colors to process colors in a composite environment, but preserves spot colors if the PostScript output from this mode is processed in a separations environment. RGBto-CMYK conversion is determined by the color management settings, if enabled. If color management is off, conversion is performed using the Apple RGB profile as the RGB color space and the Photoshop 5 Default CMYK profile as the CMYK color space.
• Separations. Sends output as CMYK separations, plus any spot colors. Useful for output destined for a printing press or other preseparated CMYK-based workflows. This is an on-host or built-in separations mode.
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Note: For placed PDF or EPS files, the Separations color mode can separate images using the
CMYK, grayscale, or monochrome color modes only. If a document contains special color spaces, such as RGB or Lab in placed PDF or placed EPS files, separation of these files may not be optimal if performed by InDesign. For best results, open the files in the application used to create them and convert them to a color mode supported by built-in separations. The In-RIP
Separations color mode is not subject to this limitation.
• In-RIP Separations. Sends output as composite CMYK and spot color data optimized for separation at the RIP. This option is available only if the targeted device supports in-RIP separations. In-RIP separations require a PostScript 3 output device, or a PostScript Level 2 device using a RIP that supports in-RIP separations. You also need a PPD that supports this device and a compatible Adobe PostScript printer driver.
Additional important notes about output color modes:
• Composite color output modes do not alter the color spaces of graphics that use non-CMYK color spaces. For example, printing an RGB EPS in Composite Gray mode does not convert the
EPS to grayscale mode.
• In most cases, InDesign only creates separations that actually contain objects. If a page contains only a magenta box, only the magenta separation will be output.
• When the thumbnail is in custom size/cut sheet view, an icon in the bottom left corner indicates the output color mode.
Composite Gray Composite RGB Composite CMYK
CMYK separations
In the proxy, the small icon in the bottom left corner indicates the output color mode.
Text as Black: Prints text as black whenever it has a value that is not None, Paper, or a 0% tint. This option is intended to ease proofing of text and should be turned off for most service provider scenarios. It’s available only for composite output of text created within InDesign. It has no effect on text in imported graphics or on text which has been converted to outlines.
Trapping: Sets up trapping for workflows involving color separation. The Trapping menu includes the following options:
• Off. Applies no trapping. This setting is automatically applied when composite output is specified, because trapping is only relevant to color separations.
• Application Built-In. Creates traps as separations are output, using the trapping engine included with InDesign (also known as the on-host trapping option). It does not trap placed
EPS files unless they are Photoshop DCS 1.0-2.0/EPS raster images; Adobe In-RIP Trapping doesn’t have this limitation. If a document uses stroked TrueType fonts, better results can be obtained using Adobe In-RIP Trapping or by converting the type to outlines (select the type and choose Type > Create Outlines).
• Adobe In-RIP. Sends color data that can be trapped at the RIP. This option is available only when In-RIP Separation is selected in the Color menu and the targeted device supports Adobe
In-RIP Trapping.
Note: The Resolution option available before version 2 of InDesign is not available in InDesign 2 or later. This option was used to calculate resampling of images. Now, resampling of one-bit images is based on the resolution provided by the Adobe Graphics Manager (AGM), which is usually obtained from the device PPD. Resampling of grayscale and color images is now based
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on the current screen ruling. Note that all resampling is controlled by the setting of the Send
Data option in the Graphics panel of the Print dialog box. In the Send Data popup menu, the All option does not resample and the other options do.
Flip: Creates a mirror image of each page for the purpose of producing emulsion that faces in the desired direction. Flip options are not available for non-PostScript printers and device-independent PostScript files. The following flip options are available:
• None. Doesn’t change the output. This is the default setting.
• Horizontal. Reflects pages across the vertical axis; text becomes wrong-reading.
• Vertical. Reflects pages across the horizontal axis; text becomes upside-down and wrongreading.
• Horizontal and Vertical. Reflects pages across both axes. The result is the same as rotating a page 180 degrees.
Negative: Inverts the polarity of pages so that black objects are white, and vice versa. Usually used to produce film negatives. This option is available only for color separation and composite grayscale output. This option uses a setpagedevice method, not a transfer function; so if your RIP uses custom screens for negative printing, InDesign will use them.
Screening: Specifies the combination of screen ruling (in lines per inch) and resolution (in dots per inch) for output. The settings in this menu depend on whether composite or separations output is specified:
• For composite output, a Default setting is available. This option simply uses the device’s default settings, because most desktop color devices don’t provide control over the line screen used by each ink.
• For separations, available settings are provided by the targeted device’s PPD, and the Default option is not available.
InDesign CS2 uses only the screen and resolution combinations described above. If you want to use an unlisted combination, add it to a customized copy of the device’s PPD.
Inks area
Use the options in the Inks area to control how document color swatches are translated into printing inks. This area includes the Ink Manager, which can simplify ink management at output time without altering the original colors of objects.
The Inks area of the Output panel lists the plates to be generated at output time and their status.
Inks list: Displays all inks and indicates their output status. This list may show fewer inks in a different order than that originally generated by the document’s color swatches if you’ve used the
Ink Manager to reassign inks (through ink aliasing). In other words, the Inks list is filtered by the Ink Manager.
Print icon: ( ) Indicates that the ink will be printed.
Frequency: Sets the screen ruling, in lines per inch, for the selected ink’s halftone dot screen.
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