ID CS3 Mac - Export Spot Color ONLY to PDF...

[fishbulb]

Long time user - first time poster....

Is there a way to export a PDF from ID CS3 with ONLY spot colors?

Tying to supply a two color PMS ad to a newspaper, and I get the four process colors PLUS the two spots. Looking at the separation manager, there is color ONLY in my two spots.

For the life of me, I can not find a way to get the process colors out of there.

Any input would be great - TY!

Jac

[eugenetyson]

It may just be showing the reference to the 4 spot colours for different proofing purposes.

When your in Acrobat, go to Tools>Print Production>Output Preview and toggle the spot colours on and off to see where the problem lies. Are you completely sure it's only spot colours that you've used?

[fishbulb]

eugenetyson,

Thank you for the fast reply...

Right now, I am 100% sure it is only the two spots, as I have made a test file in ILL with two squares (one of each spot) and placed that into ID. No text, nothing else imported, etc.

double clicking on the swatch in ID reveals that it is listed as a spot color, and below it (greyed out) the color space is listed as CMYK.

Went into the Output Preview in acrobat and it lists the process colors plus the two spots. When I click to show only the individual plates, I only get color on my two spot channels.

Printed as separations form ID and got two pages - one for each spot.

When I change the simulation profile in Output Preview from SWOP to RGB, the process colors are gone and the RGB ones are in....

Thoughts?

thanks!

-jac

[The Repro Kid]

did you eliminate the Process swatches from InD before making your PDF? did you use any Registration colors or cropmarks?

[fishbulb]

Thank you for the reply....

The only element in the test ID Document is the imported AI file - with the two PMS spots.

All extra swatches have been removed from ID and AI.

I had exported with printers marks - good catch! However, I just exported one as Standard "Press Quality" with no printers marks and had the same issue.

I can post the file somewhere if that will help.

thanks!!!

-Jac

[eugenetyson]

Yes please post. It's much better to see the file in action. Thanks.

[DCurry]

I think that the CMYK plates are always going to be there. You're worrying too much about it. As long as your artwork is showing up only on the plates it's supposed to, it's fine.

[fishbulb]

I am pretty certain that the print and the plates will be fine....everything that I can do or check points to that.

FWIW, Bridge shows only the PMS plates for the AI file, and only the swatches that I am using for the ID file (Black, PMS 201, PMS CG 11, Paper, Registration)

The only reason I am concerned is that I am getting a little static back from the company I am placing the ad with. I just want to make sure that I have covered my bases before I get back to them.

Thank you!

-Jac

[fishbulb]

D'oh! Didn't see your post!

The files are zipped up and can be found here:

http://comps.homenetinc.com/ID_PDF_Spot_Color_Test.zip

Please let me know is you need anything different!

Thanks for the help!

-jac




Yes please post. It's much better to see the file in action. Thanks.

[eugenetyson]

Yep, just spot colours there in the InDesign file. I'm just printing out a 2000mm job at the moment so my acrobat is busy. But InDesign file looks right.

[fishbulb]

..was found in "Real World InDesign CS2" Page 688.

Basically states that the process colors always have swatches, even if it is a 100% spot color job. It is stated much better in the book, but that is the general idea.

Thank you everyone for you help!

-jac

[The Repro Kid]

DCurry had the best advice when said that don't need to worry whether they are there or not. That was my thinking as well. When you hand your printer a two color job, they know better than anyone not to attempt to output the CMYK, whether it appears in the output plate list or not.

But it appears that Real World InDesign needs to spend some quality time with InDesign. While in most apps it's true that you can't eliminate the CMYK swatches, for instance Acrobat, Illustrator, Quark, it's not entirely true what Real World InDesign says about InDesign. With InDesign it is possible to remove the CMY swatches but you can not remove the Black. But the CMY will reappear in the PDF.

[eugenetyson]

Hi Repro,

Yes that is true. But the swatches are independent of the output swatches. As you can insert a 4 colour image, but if you remove the cyan swatch it won't remove the cyan from the image, as the image is independent of the swatches. So all the swathces really are for is colouring within InDesign. But when you output to a PDF you will always get the CMYK seperations as it is there for proofing images, not just text.

Hope that is clear enough, but you already probably new that?

[The Repro Kid]

Yup I did. As dcurry eluded to, you will always have CMYK in your output list. But InD is the only one that lets you remove them from your palette.