Ink density problems in PDFs exported from Publisher

[CoryM]

When Adobe PSD photos with deep, rich blacks are placed into Affinity Publisher then exported to press-ready PDF and subsequently opened in Acrobat, the maximum ink density readings are upwards of about 320 percent, which exceeds both the recommended density values for printing and the maximum density settings built into the photos.

I thought this might be an issue with the density values I used while converting the photos from RGB to CMYK in Photoshop, so I checked. Nope. The density values were all under 300% as expected. Taking those same photos, placing them into InDesign and exporting as a press-ready PDF and opening in Acrobat, the ink density reading were, as expected, under 300%.

I tried converting them to TIFFs and Affinity Photo files, but got exactly the same results — excessively high ink densities from Publisher but expected densities from InDesign as measured in Acrobat.

On a whim, I lowered the density values in Photoshop to the minimum level of 200%, exported the photos, placed them in Publisher, exported to a PDF and read the ink density readings. Once again, the maximum density readings were over 300%. Using those same low ink density photos in InDesign and exporting to PDF resulted in the expected values in Acrobat.

What is going on with this? Is Affinity Publisher somehow overriding or ignoring the maximum ink density settings in photos? Is Adobe Acrobat somehow misreading the ink densities in the PDFs exported from Affinity Publisher? I'm sort of suspecting that Publisher just isn't honoring the photo's maximum ink density settings, which to me, makes Publisher unusable. I hope I'm wrong.

I have a 96-page full-color book with photos on every page scheduled to be printed next week, and I'm afraid to send them the PDF because of this problem.

Anyone have any insight on this?

[CoryM]

Thanks for responding. I was using U.S. Sheetfed Coated v2 in InDesign and exporting it to PDF using that profile from Affinity Publisher. I tried a couple of other profiles and got the same results — higher densities from the Publisher export than from InDesign.

After posting my first message, I found a profile online made especially for IngramSpark (on-demand digital) to bring those maximum values down to under 240% and oddly, that worked when exporting from Publisher to PDF — all the values, according to Acrobat, were below 240%. The downside is that I only need to keep it a bit below 300 for sheetfed offset, which is how the book will be printed.

It's late, I'm calling it quits for the evening — my brain is beginning to stall out. Maybe the morning will bring something obvious that I've missed. Thanks again.

[lacerto]

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[CoryM]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tried them, but I'm getting the same results — ink densities upwards of 330% when analyzed in Adobe Acrobat.

On test files, I've both assigned and not assigned various profiles in Photoshop. I've assigned the same ones at the document level. I've overridden and not overridden them on export to PDF. It's always the same no matter what — way high maximum densities in the PDF. The only thing that's seemed to make a difference is when I assign the IngramSpark profile upon export to PDF, which kicks everything back to under 240%, but that's not what I need. 

[lacerto]

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