Image Workflow in InDesign CC 2014?

Question

I'm working on a 16-pg 4-color brochure that will be output as a printable PDF, which in turn will be sent to the printer.
In the past, I've always converted my high-res .jpg images to tiffs before placing them in InDesign. Is that still the preferred workflow? Also, what about placed PSD files? Do the Photoshop files need to be converted to CMYK before placing them in InDesign as well? The reason I'm asking these questions is I usually receive an error message in InDesign if it has placed RGB images, but I didn't see that warning in InDesign CC 2014. And yes, my InDesign document is setup as Print. Thanks in advance for any help with this.
– K

Answer 1

If you already have JPEG images, it buys you absolutely nothing to convert them to TIFF or PSD files for placement into InDesign. Whatever lossiness that would occur already happened by creating JPEG in the first place. Note that this doesn't mean that JPEG is a poor choice, but that it doesn't improve anything to convert the file to a lossless format unless you are planning to subsequently edit the file.
No, there is no good reason to convert your RGB images to CMYK before placing the image into InDesign. InDesign can optionally convert RGB imagery to whatever CMYK color space you need for printing. However, the most reasonable and reliable place for any RGB to CMYK (or even LAB to CMYK) conversion to take place is at the RIP itself since it is only at that stage of the print production process that you definitively know what the output CMYK color space really is.
If you received any “error messages” from InDesign in the past about RGB images being placed, it was likely due to having activated an InDesign profile to check for such imagery. Such a check is not on by default.
          - Dov