Create Color-Separated PDFs
Shelley wrote:
How can I save a separated PDF from InDesign? I know about the separations preview pallete - which is great, but I need to save each color (either C-M-Y-K, or a few PMS colors, depending on the job) on its own page.HELP! I’m going mental.
We wouldn’t want that to happen …
You can’t do this with Export to PDF but you can do it the old-fashioned way.
Assuming you have a recent version of Acrobat Pro installed, you should have an Adobe PDF “printer” available in your Print dialog box’s dropdown menu.
So choose File > Print, choose the Adobe PDF printer (it will write your file to PostScript and then Distill it), go to the Output panel and change the Color menu from Composite to Separations, turn on Trapping (Application Built-in) if you want that, then click the Print button.
Print to Adobe PDF dialog box
InDesign uses current Distiller settings and saves the PDF (automatically naming it) somewhere on your hard drive. You end up with a PDF made up of a single page for each printing ink color separation per document page. As long as you included Page Information when you turned on Printers Marks, each page will be labelled with its page number and ink color name.
For more control over PDF naming and settings, before you click the Print button, click the Printer… (or Setup… if you’re on Windows) button at the bottom of the Print dialog box. From the Printer Settings dialog box, choose PDF Options and set the Distiller Job Options there, and choose the After PDF Creation: Open in Acrobat option. When you click Print here you’ll get a prompt asking you to name the PDF and choose a Save location, then the dialog box closes.
When you’re returned to InDesign’s Print dialog box, check to make sure that Separations is still the Output Color setting; sometimes it reverts to Composite after a trip to Printer Settings. Then click Print. The separated PDF should open automatically in Acrobat.
Note that most commercial printers prefer composite PDFs though! They do their own seps from it. So I’m assuming you need this for some other purpose.
I have seen printers ask for this, and this a classic example of a really bad workflow. If your printer is asking to do this, run, don’t walk, to find another!
Steve, while I tend to agree with you, I think there are times that sending preseparated PDF files is perfectly reasonable. For example, if you’re doing a little two-color job with a small print shop, there’s a chance that giving them a preseparated PDF will be more reliable and easier for everyone. It is an “old” workflow, but it can work fine.
I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with you on that one. Since you can easily preview and color separate composite PDFs from within Acrobat 7 Professional, there’s no reason for any printer to still be using that workflow—except for ignorance or lack of training.
I have one for you.
We recently upgraded to CS 2. We have direct to plate workflow with our in-house print shop.
Here is our odd work around
I clearly did something wrong in the initial set-up for the colour managment as whenver I generate a pdf (File/Adobe PDF presets/press quality), I get an error message.
Message reads:
The preset specifies source profiles that don’t match the current colour settings file. Profies specifed by the colour setttings file will be used.
So I have something set up wrong…
Moving along anyway I export the file and Acrobat opens and error reads:
Acrobat could not open X because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged…blah blah.
Then I go back into the folder and it has renamed with a wierd squiggle. I rename the file and all is fine.
It is a bit of a pain to say the least. Any ideas where our error in workflow lies?
Thanks, Tana
Requesting these seperate pdfs for print may mean they are utilising a screen printing method to achieve a particular result rather than using offset printing processes? i know screen printing methods and processes very well - im sure alot of you already do too - but i know this has come in handy when i would like to get my hands dirty and just print it myself…oh the joy of ink on a nice beautiful flat substrate….ooh…the way it sits atop the paper - good paper at that…mmmmm
I have a color sep question that is causing problems before I even create the PDF. We have a specific PMS color we use corporately. In InDesign CS, this color is listed as a “CVU” When I need to do something in Photoshop CS, I can get a C color or a U color, but not CVU. When I bring the graphic in from photoshop it will either create another color swatch or ignore it. On screen, the colors are very different, and print differently also. When I create a PDF, the colors again, are different. (I’ve even tried to “fool” InDesign by using the eyedropper to select the uncnageable Photoshop color and putting it in the objects created in InDesign, but it still doesn’t recognize it as a PMS, and still prints a different shade!) My outside print vendors seem to fix this when they print, but I need to be able to print correctly here in the office. We send the PDFs around for approvals, and they look terrible. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?
Steve
You mention we can easily preview and color separate composite PDFs from within Acrobat 7 Professional?
How is this done and/or where can I find the information on how to do this?
Rod, open the PDF in Acrobat Pro 7 and go to Tools > Print Production > Output Preview. You get the same sort of Separation Preview palette as you’d get in InDesign.
To print separations from a composite PDF in Acrobat, click the Advanced… button in the Print dialog box. In the Advanced Print Setup dialog box, click the Output category on the left, and on the right, choose Separations in the Output dropdown menu (it defaults to Composite). You can set in-RIP seps, turn on trapping, printer’s marks, etc. here as well.
I agree that there is no problem with a printer asking for separations, I have run 2 printshops and have asked for them. it is also to your advantage and gives you more assurance. if colors are off or objects from a plate are the wrong color, you have the separations to back up how things should look.
Hopefully someone can help me… Indesign CS refuses to make more than a 1 page PDF when i print separations. A 2 page document with 3 color seps produces a 1 page 1 separation pdf. It takes 6 times longer to get my seps! i cant figure out what i have done wrong. thanks
This is very handy for silkscreen, thanks!
Is there a way to flatten or composite a color separated pdf in Indesign or Acrobat? That way if you receieved a sepeartd file, you could simply flatten or make it composite.
Yes there is a way to composite a color separated pdf in Acrobat.
And the way is: PDF Seps2Comp plug-in.
PDF Seps2Comp is a composition utility for Adobe Acrobat which provides design, prepress and print professionals with the ability to take a separated PDF and transform it into a composite document. The PDF Seps2Comp plug-in provides the last link to a truly composite workflow. The composite document is a live, editable document (not a bitmap) which can be manipulated and saved in the same manner as any other PDF file.
I have upload this plug-in for you:
Download-Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/9367880/S2CSetup1.0.1.rar.html
Unfortunately, I am still working with acrobat 5.0 which cannot function as a printer in OSX.
I was working on a business card with spot color.
My printer asked for color separated pdf and I had to manually create different pdf documents (Cut out the spot color, export, then paste the spot color back in and delete everything else and export again). This is a small business card,and was not hard to do, but was there an easier way to do it?
Thanks.
This may be really simple, but does anyone know a simple way to create a greyscale PDF from a full colour document?
I have created a 2-color Separated PDF. The screens in the file are solid and not made of dots. Our in-house print shop prints them straight to plate. Is the PDF supposed to be screened already? How do I change that?
Also, I have two spot colors and the screen angle on both are 45 degress. Are they not supposed to be different? I notice the CMYK angles are different. I have a duotone with the two spots in the document and I am wondering if the angles should be different. If so, what should the angle be?
Sorry, the screen angle I’m talking about is in the print dialog when printing separations.
Hi, I am creating a two-color brochure and the client wants to print the job in-house. For that they’ve asked for a PDF with separations. I have Acrobat 6 standard. After doing the necessary steps in InDesign’s print dialog box, I get four PDF pages in the document — all gray (no color). Why don’t I see any color?
Also, should I be getting four pages if I use two spot colors for the job?
Any help would be very welcome. Thanks.
ok - did the pdf sep on my job, and there is some instance of a pms color on there and i cant find it (i was changing on the colors on this wicked vector thing) and it is driving me crazy - i printed the color out and it shows nothing on the page - i am fearing there is a 0% opacity instance of this color somewhere in the doc that i cant find - any hints? helps?
and i so did not create this toliet image i am working on.
I own Printshop 20 - hope someone can help me with saving a legal size document. Whenever I save the document and go back into the program it comes up in standard 8.5 x 11 paper size. Why will my project not save in legal size format? It is a hassle to reset fonts and picutres everytime I open my saved project. Please help…..
Mike, it sounds like you have a problem. I hate to be negative about this, but our site is about InDesign, not Printshop.
I have a variation on this question…
We send Print Ready PDF’s to a our print vendors, but one, who does imprinting on pre-printed shells because they don’t have a digital press, tells us they can’t separate the colors and thus, can’t imprint the black type only onto the shells. Is there a way of doing this or are they blowing smoke???
Regarding pre-separated pdf’s: How to I get the CMYK preseparated pages to print with correct screen angles. Is it a matter of setting the angles in the print dialog box prior to preseparation and turning off the overrides in the RIP? Will this work? The default angle in Acrobat is 45. If I send the pages as is they are all 45. Obviously this can’t work. What simple thought/item/step am I overlooking?
When a preseparated pdf is created is there a screen angle already included in the pdf of each CMYK image that I cannot see? Again, do I turn off the overide because of this? Am I over complicating an issue that is already taken care of? I hate to have something ripped and have the wrong angles.
@Amy: You make a very good point about halftone screen angles. You can control this in Acrobat by clicking the Advanced button in the Print dialog box. But I suppose you’d need to send each page to the rip one at a time (or send pages 1, 5, 10, etc., for all the cyan plates, then 2, 6, 11, etc. for magenta, and so on). Certainly not a happy workflow, all in all.