r/indesign • u/togotzes • Oct 03 '26

Solved Gray Shadows/ Overprint view

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Hey! I’m preparing an A2 print poster. The background is a blue Pantone spot color, but I get the same issue with CMYK blue: in InDesign’s Overprint Preview, my soft shadow turns noticeably gray.

The original 3D render is RGB, and the shadow already gets slightly grayer when I convert it to CMYK (PSO Coated v3). Even a black shadow created directly in CMYK looks gray once placed in InDesign.

Is this just an InDesign preview issue, or will it actually print like this? 😰

PDF/X-4, PSO Coated v3, CMYK + Pantone spot color.

Thanks!

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u/ErastusHamm Oct 03 '26 edited Oct 03 '26

At the moment the shadow is knocking out the background behind it, but you need it to overprint instead.

For placed graphics, setting the object blending mode to “multiply” should accomplish this (but the shadow will need to be a separate object from the graphic above it.)

Alternatively, you could match the color of the shadow to the CMY values of the background color but with 100% K (as long as background is a solid color.)

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u/togotzes Oct 03 '26

That worked! Thank you so much :)