Colour issues when Producing iBA assets from InDesign

Question

Hi there
This is just a heads-up for those that produce any assets for eventual use in iBooks Author in InDesign. Watch out for colour matching issues.  The RGB values in inDesign do not often produce the same colours in iBA. Why would someone be using InDesign in the first place? Well you might use InDesign to work out page layouts, or to produce the TOC backgrounds (so that Chapters can feature individual colour ways), or for creating images with text for use in HTML widgets. It's just quicker/easier at handling text and managing styles.
Anyway - here's the issue. Try this: Create an colour with a specific RGB value in InDesign, export it as a jpg, and import it to iBA. Then create a shape within iBA with exactly the same RGB values. The two colours may differ. We have tried selecting different colour management options in InDesign, and even turning it off completely, but the colours still differ.
We created an image in Photoshop with a certain RGB value. That looked fine in iBA, and had kept the correct RGB value (using the colour sample tool to test it). We took a .jpg exported from InDesign (with the same RGB value within InDesign), opened it in Photoshop, and although the two images in Photoshop reported the same RGB value, they were clearly different to look at. When the InDesign image was brought into iBA, it's colour sample tool reported a differing set of RGB values.
So, if you have some assets where you need a reliable colour match you have a few choices:
1) Don't use InDesign - use Illustrator or Photoshop
2) If you must use InDesign - then export the assets as RGB PDFs with no colour management, open in Photoshop and export to jpg from there.
3) If you're using colour ways, create the image from InDesign, but don't use the same RGB values that InDesign has to create elements in iBA. Sample the image using the colour sampler, and use the resulting RGB values to create your items.
Like I say - it's not really an Apple issue, but those who use iBA with InDesign are better off pre warned, so I thought that I would be better off posting it here than in Adobe's forums.

Answer 1

Publisher can create CMYK files, you go save as, then choose PDF, then click on Options or something and change it to Commercial Press.  This is Microsoft's version of the Press Quality export setting in Indesign, with it converting all images to CMYK, downsampling to 300dpi etc.
NEVER EVER EVER USE THIS WAY TO CREATE PRINT FILES FROM PUBLISHER!!!!
Have I made myself clear? 
The CMYK images created this way have a terrible sort of under colour removal.  Think for example of a dark blue garment, where most of the garment is  something like 100C 60M 0Y 60K, but in the shadows it goes darker than  that, up to 100K.  Well in that area of 95 to 100% black in the image Publisher will convert it to only that, with no other colours underneath it.  But the areas surrounding it will be rich black.  This won't show up on digital proofs, even hi res ripped inkjets, and won't even show up on a press pass unless the machine has drying, because it is not until the ink dries off that you notice these weird photos....  Anyway what I do has already been said above.
1. Refry it first.
2. You should be able to sync your settings.
3. No, it just thinks it can.
In this case I actually had the Publisher files as well, so I printed them to PDF using Acrobat, and the images were fine.  Problem is the client had gotten used to text and other elements the way they looked using Publishers crappy CMYK export so I had to combine that with the proper images by cropping in Indesign..
Here's examples of what happens:
CMY channels only, BAD!
CMY channels only, GOOD!