Problem printing with In Design CS1

Probably a bit of a stupid question however I am a graphics student who is doing a project on In Design and have found that while I have my page set in RGB, they appear to be printing in CMYK. For example a strong purple on the page comes out as a very ugly pale pink. The image is printed at 40% just so I can get a rough idea of what it looks like. I have a HP Deskjet 1220C. The reason this is odd is that I have previously used the said same programme and printer, with the same colours and at the same %, on an old iBook I had before I moved up to a shiny new iMac, and I used to just print away happily without any colour issues. I also can print on Photoshop with said same colour and using RGB and it comes out perfectly, so I can only think there is a setting issue with In Design somewhere. Can anyone help? You would be saving my life!

Sparky's said:

Have you checked whether you have color management on? if so turn it off. The internal engine in InDesign will usually try to print to a postscript CMYK device and this may be what is set as default

just my 2¢

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Nope, the color management is off. Any other things I could try? I am at a loss The output says RGB, and the printer does RGB, just somewhere along the way it aint happening...

Solved it

Knew it was something stupid. Thank you for your help, it helped me out a lot!

Lau said:

Just a heads up, would you mind posting what it was? Then if someone searches for it later it will sove their problem too.

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Heh, a bit premature, that was what it was I am afraid. More problems.
OK, another question if you dont mind.
I turned the color management off in In Design and while it seemed to improve it a bit (see above), it was still way off the photoshop one, producing more of a drab purple than the more vibrant color I am using.
I have changed the color management settings in In Design to match that of Photoshop, however I can still notice color differences between the text. I am slightly clearer though as to how it works, they both appear to be changing the RGB to CMYK in different ways, Photoshop makes the RGB purple more a dark pink, while In Design make it a very pale flat purple. I noticed in In Design, when the colour is in RGB and I have the colour I am using, there is a little triange with an "!" in the middle, which I think is telling me it is out of the CMYK range, and the colour in it is the drab purple. How come Photoshop converts it into one color, while In Design does another? And is there any way of changing it? I would prefer to convert to the dark pink than keep on printing the drab pale purple! I take it there is no way of keeping that original purple either?

Blue Velvet said:

Possibly because the default settings for each application may be set to different output profiles and working spaces but if you have colour management off in both apps then that shouldn't make a difference.

What could also be possible is that you may have different printer description files (PPDs) and printer settings selected under each app.

Please try to get out of the habit of using RGB for print work, it's too easy to select colours that are out of gamut leading to these kind of conversion issues. That path can lead to a life of pain, darkness and suffering...

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Yeah, I have learnt that today/yesterday. If anything this problem has been an education as I have learnt more about colours than I have on the whole 2 1/2 years of my degree. I guess it was bugging me because as far as I can tell there is no difference what so ever between the two. Its strange why two programs would choose two different colors to replace only one, however I have learnt from my mistakes and since I cant print that purple anyway, I just used the dark pink that Photoshop produces and changed the colors in the In Design and no problemo.
Just as a quick question really, what do you think my RGB and CMYK working spaces and color management policies should be at? I have my home Deskjet 1220c but for the final prints I take them into my college to get them printed on this larger, more professional machine, at the moment after much playing around, they are on the default settings the way they came:
Working spaces -
RGB = sRGB
CMYK = US Web Coated

Color management -
Both on Perserve Embedded Profiles

Any of these you think I should change to be most suitable for graphic print jobslike the above and the very occasional bit of web graphics (on photoshop)? I have been wondering which would be best ever since this all started. I just use standard print paper, nothing special as the deskjet is mainly for dummys and sketchbook work.