This may not be the exact topic of this post but I have a rookie question. I have merged a dataset with an InDesign template. Now, I want to export the merged document as a PDF file. Is it possible to export the whole document into different PDF documents not only one? For example, I want pages 1 and 2 to be PDF file #1; pages 3 and 4 to be PDF file #2. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks!

Robert

But . . .

@David: “If it’s CMYK or RGB (or grayscale), it gets halftoned, which leaves you with “blurry/fuzzy” halftoned edges.”

That’s not exactly spot-on (pun intended or not? You decide!). It’s only if a layer or channel in the CMYK file (I’ll concentrate on this color mode now) is continous-tone, i.e. 8-bit or 16-bit/channel that the RIP will halftone the data. But you can have bitmap-like data in a CMYK file and get non-halftoned line-output in the RIP . . . if the channel or layer’s data is 1-bit-like, i.e., only white-and-black, with no other values than 0 and 255. That’s how the line art in most comic books are now handled: it’s a standard CMYK file of around 400-600 ppi with normal color layers — and the K channel is 1-bit-only-like. That will halftone the CMY data but not the K data. (Now 400-600 ppi is too low in my judgment for really crisp line art, but that’s the compromise the comics publishers settled on years ago, when we had punier PCs.)

Illustrator way is better – but too time consuming to do properly as embeded pdfs and shading each item with the exact shade it already has in cmyk and overlay them.

I’m sure someone could write a script to do this???

Finding the best and the cheapest printer at the same time is surely a contradiction!

I find it excellent that you post this here today since i might get really concerned by the issue soon !

We’ll be working on a sustainable development book where “positive” figures are green, and “negative” figures are red. The rest of the text is set in black.

This is the author’s idea. The publisher first thought about duotone : half printing costs, and we already did that… for a 2 colors book (black and brown)…

My answer would be : green + red = brown if everything is perfectly aligned. And that would look nice !

inD would only have 2 spot colors, and a mixed ink, and i would pre-process the watercolor illustration in photoshop to achieve my goal.

Now i know how to do all this theorically, but i need to find the best (and cheapest) printer, cause if ever it isn’t aligned, then everything vibrates and send the book directly to the trash !

files to try here :

http://fr32c.free.fr/Print/TestCouleursDD-0307.zip
Where there’s inx, pdf, psd “work file” and another psd made with your technique to get frightened :
http://fr32c.free.fr/Print/TestCouleursDDCS3Repere.psd.zip

@David: I took a document I made in InDesign, made a PDF of Separations.

I then opened it in Illustrator, applied the correct percentage of CMYK to each sep. And then blended them together.

It worked out ok. And I saved it as a PDF.

It was very time consuming. And if it’s just for proofing then your method is far superior.

If only you could colour grayscale PDFs in InDesign?