PDF Images too light-Publisher

[GregoryOR]

I am exporting pages for a virtual book in both JPG and PDF formats.  The JPG's come out perfect.  The PDF images are so light they are unusable.  Please see the attached screenshot, with the PDF export on the left and the JPG export on the right. Can anyone explain how I can get the PDF exported images to look right?

[Old Bruce]

To my eye it appears that somehow you have exported only the K channel from a CMYK document for the PDF and all channels were used for the JPEG.

[GregoryOR]

Would you happen to know if there is a setting somewhere where I can confirm which channels are being exported and possibly change it?  Thanks!

[Callum]

Hi GregoryOR,

Please could you provide a copy of the document in question along with a screenshot of the export settings you are using when exporting to PDF? This will allow me to investigate this further with you.

Thanks
C

[GregoryOR]

Thanks @Callum

Here's a trimmed down version of the afpub file, screenshot of settings, and the comparative exports.  I have never touched the PDF export settings from installation.  It looks like only the embedded images are faded.  Text and curves all look the same between PDF and JPG exports.

SketchTest.afpub SketchTest.pdf

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

 

[GregoryOR]

Wow, thanks for the thorough explanation on color space!  I have so much to learn about this stuff!  My PDF is meant to be viewed digitally, so the CMKY color mode choice was unintentional.  I thought I used a web template to create this booklet, but maybe I accidentally chose a print template instead.  I tried changing the export settings to RGB, with no change to the output, so then chose PDF/X-1a like you suggested, and it looks great!

I usually ignore preflight, because it flags a bunch of intentional stuff as warnings, and for this document, it was spelling mistake warnings for a bunch of latin words, and bleed hazards, which aren't an issue with my document, and non-proportional scaling, which is on purpose.

Thanks again, for not only a solution, but some learning as well!

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[GregoryOR]

This image has gone through a lot of conversions - starting as a jpg photo, then converted to png "sketch effect" using an online tool, then optimized using ImageOptim, but the final png before placing in AFPub is sRGB IEC61966-2.1 as you show in the resource manager screenshot.  The paper background image is a jpg, with the same color space and color profile as the sketch before placing into AFPub.  I just created a new AFPub document with the same color profile as the images, and placed them in the document. 

The I exported as digital-high quality PDF and again as X-1a:2003 PDF.  When I open both in AFPub and look at the resource manager, the transparent image has been exported differently between the two.  In the digital HQ pdf, the image is faded, and is a TIFF with RGB color space and no ICC profile.  In the X-1a pdf, the image is perfect, and is a JPG with CMKY color space, also no ICC profile.

What tool are you using to compare the downsampled and non-downsampled? Curious that it is showing RGB color profiles for the exported embedded images, but the resource manager in AFPub that I am using shows something very different.  But it does suggest that the export process is where the sRGB2014 profile is introduced, rather than the placement of the image in the document.

I find this fascinating, and am learning so much that I didn't know before!

[lacerto]

Obsolete.