Comments on: Create Color-Separated PDFs

By: David Wrase

David Wrase — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:20:55 +0000

Thanks to David Blatner, I made a .mrk file to customize my page information. It works beautifully except for the separation plate names. When I print, I get “Process Cyan Process Magenta Process Yellow Process Black (and any spot colors)” However, when I create a pdf file, I get “Cyan Magenta Yellow BlacK” yes the final K comes out capitalized, AND, the pdf file never lists any active spot colors, (but the pdf does include the spot colors). Whether printing or exporting a pdf, I am accessing the same dialogue box to select marks and bleed/page information and selecting my custom .mrk file, yet I get different results. Neither of which seems perfectly correct since print adds the word Process in front of CMYK names (they are not listed that way in the separations preview) but the PDF capitalizes the last letter of BlacK and drops all spot colors - not acceptable. It seems that my custom .mrk file is fine and InDesign’s export pdf feature is unable to keep pace. Any fixes to get those spot color names to show along with the process color names in pdf files?

thank you

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:38:14 +0000

Delaney, I have 10.5.5, ID CS3 5.03 and Acro 8 and 9. I just tested, and I can choose Separations from the Color: pop-up menu the Output pane (in the Print dialog box). It works whether I choose the Acro 8 or the Acro 9 virtual printer. In other words, I can still do exactly what the post describes.

Are you sure that you’ve chosen the Acrobat virtual printer? Is it working okay otherwise (even if you’re not making seps)?

By: Delaney Keating

Delaney Keating — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:08:31 +0000

HELP! I have ever had any trouble printing color separated PDFs out of InDesign, however since I upgraded to OS 10.5.5, I no longer have the separations option in my print dialog box… the option is there, but it is gray and cannot be accessed. I am assuming that this is a problem from within InDesign vs. within Acrobat.

Any thoughts?

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:15:43 +0000

@Rochelle: I think only the printer’s RIP can supply that. The spot color info is in the PDF, but only your printer can control whether the names print out, I believe.

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:19:58 +0000

We make composite pdfs from indesign and then that pdf gets separated in our platemaking rip. My question is how do we get our spot colour plates to have the ink colour names on them from a composite pdf? When we print separations to our colour printer (xerox docucolor 5065) or our HP laser printer, the ink info is there. It’s when we get the plates back from our composite pdf that the colour info has dropped off.
Yes, printer info is checked(ticked).

Appreciate your help on this one.

Rocket

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:01:04 +0000

@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.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:56:16 +0000

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.

By: JCD

JCD — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:30:55 +0000

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???

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:47:02 +0000

Mike, it sounds like you have a problem. I hate to be negative about this, but our site is about InDesign, not Printshop.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:41:00 +0000

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…..