Printing black - Correct settings for commercial printers

[Catshill]

I want to check that the black text in my press-ready PDF is actually black.

The document profile is set as CMYK

Text colour is showing in the document as CMYK  0-0-0-100

I'm using the following export profile: 

Text colour in the PDF produced shows RGB 20-29-27 CMYK 69-66-67-77

A previous profile showed RGB 30-27-27 which my commercial printer flagged as an issue and I want to find out which setting I set actually corrected the issue.

I've read the following threads but I am none the wiser:

 

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Catshill,

Are you able to upload your pdf so we can check for you?

[Catshill]

5 hours ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Catshill,

Are you able to upload your pdf so we can check for you?

Hi @Hangman Check what? I already know what the output is. I want to identify the factor in the export profile that changes the text colour. 

[Hangman]

1 hour ago, Catshill said:

Check what? I already know what the output is. I want to identify the factor in the export profile that changes the text colour. 

I don’t understand why your commercial printer is quoting the text colour for a CMYK exported PDF in terms of RGB values. If the item is being printed in CMYK and they have requested you use the FOGRA39 ICC profile then if you’ve set the text to K100 using Coated Fogra39 and exported using the settings shown in your screengrabs then I would expect the RGB values to be RGB 29-27-27 but I’m unsure why that is relevant.

What specs has your printer requested?

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Old Bruce]

7 hours ago, Catshill said:

I want to check that the black text in my press-ready PDF is actually black.

 

Are you using a Swatch that is defined as CMYK 0, 0, 0, 100. I usually make a Document Palette and define CMYK 0, 0, 0, 100 as a global colour named Black for Text and I use that Black for Text colour for the text colour in the definitions for my Text Styles.

[Catshill]

Thanks for the replies and apologies if I was not being clear. I've corrected my OP when I referenced the RGB rather than the CMYK value.

First of all the text style is set to CMYK 0-0-0-100K

As I said earlier my printers are now happy with the PDF I am sending them as text is 0-0-0-K100. 

However, I still do not know what factor(s) in the PDF export profile affect the conversion of CMYK 0.0.0.100K set text to other CMYK values as shown below.

These screenshots show the original PDF showing incorrect CMYK value and the current PDF showing the correct CMYK value. 

Note that the only difference in the source APu file were the export settings used - I just can't work out what setting(s) are making the change. 

[Hangman]

38 minutes ago, Catshill said:

However, I still do not know what factor(s) in the PDF export profile affect the conversion of CMYK 0.0.0.100K set text to other CMYK values as shown below.

This is usually caused when the Export ICC Profile differs from the Document ICC Profile resulting in a conversion between how black is defined between the two profiles...

When your source document uses FOGRA39 but is exported using an embeded U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 ICC profile, K100 is converted to C:69 M:66 Y:67 K:77 as you are seeing in your screen recording...

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Catshill]

Thank you @Hangman and @lacerto

I will investigate further.