HELP!! Color issues with making PDFs
Christine Holzmann
Christine Holzmann
Up until now, my method for making PDFs has been to export as EPS, then distill via Acrobat and our printer has printed the resulting PDF. The reason I am doing it this way is because he has had a few problems with PDFs I have exported straight from InDesign before.
However, with a new magazine we are doing, I need to make a PS file instead first and then convert that to PDF...this is so I can include crop marks. What is happening is that the black text is appearing on ALL color plates in the resulting PDF instead of just on the black plate. The problem is not in Distiller because I have it set to leave colors unchanged. The problem is in the PS file that is created by InDesign.
After a lot of troubleshooting I discovered this: Basically almost all of the print space profiles that I choose in the color management options make ID produce postscript files where the black text is changed to be on all CMYK plates. Funnily enough, the only print space profile that works is one I created specifically for newsprint a couple of years ago. The color in the resulting PDF is as it should be and black text is only on the black plate. The printer had told me to choose "US Web Coated (SWOP) v2 as the print profile, but this converts the black text to CMYK. Why is it that ALL the print space profiles convert the black text to CMYK?? Is there a better option or something I don't know about??
When I turn color management OFF, I am able to produce a good postscript file. However, I would prefer to have color management ON as I have always had it on from the beginning.....and because the colors just look terribly washed out if I turn it off. Up until now, my color in the newsprint has always been excellent from all the color section fronts I have made in ID. Please can you advise me on what to do here??
Richard Rönnbäck
This is a general color management phenomenon and is not specific to
InDesign. What happens is that you convert colors from one color space to
another and this will almost certainly lead to color shifts and most often
to black being separated to several plates.
What you will need to do is to make sure that such conversion does not take
place. Simply put you have two options:
1) Turn off color management. This is the safe option until you have gotten
the hang of color management and you can do it at output time only.
2) Or, make sure your document (including linked cmyk graphics etc) is
tagged with the same profile as your final output device (in this case your
printer wanted US Web Coated (SWOP) v2 so that would be it) Once the file is
properly set up you choose to print using the document color space as both
source and destination
Before you send it to Distiller it makes very good sense to print
separations which will tell whether the black separates to one plate only
Christine Holzmann
Thank you very much for your prompt reply:)) Everything you said makes 100% perfect sense.
Both options you mentioned work perfectly for me now (Originally I had the document tagged with a different profile but reassigned the correct tag to it so it is the same as the document color space profile I am printing to and it works fine now:))
Slowwwwwly my memories of color management issues are returning to me now......it is not something I have to think about very often for the past couple of years because none of my settings have had to be changed as I have had everything set up for newsprint.....and our newspaper is the only thing we have been printing up until now with the addition of the magazine. I am glad these "problems" occurred today tho' as it has forced me to revisit the very important issue of color management once again.
Thanks once again:)) I am glad to say I am over that bad panic attack I had this morning .......