managing color & graphics in pdf conference 2004 a pdf workflow
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Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Managing Color &Graphics in a PDF Workflow
Presented by
Julie Shaffer
Director, PIA/GATF Center for Imaging Excellence
In this session…
• PDF vs native – what’s different in terms of
color & image file management?
• Preflighting – what to look for, tools to use
• Creating PDF for print: PostScript
–Distiller & Quark 6
• Creating PDF for print
• How to avoid color & image problems
• Hot to fix common color/image issues with
Acrobat & plug-ins
PDF workflow – what do we mean?
• Exchanging composite PDF files for print
production instead of native & supporting files
How relevant is a PDF workflow?
• Seybold PDF
Usage Survey
• 2004 survey
results show
PDF is a top
preferred file
format for
“content
receivers”
Which of the file types below do you or your workgroup prefer to receive?.
What a PDF File Contains
• The graphic components of a print-ready PDF
file consist of the following:
–Vector (path) objects – can be stroked or filled
–Text (font) objects– can also be stroked or filled
–Raster (image) objects – rectangular array of sample
values (pixels)
• These can be compressed and/or be tagged
with ICC profiles, but other familiar graphic
file types do not exist within in a PDF file!
–You won’t find an EPS file or TIFF image in a PDF,
just vector or raster objects!
More stuff that can be in a PDF file…
• Annotations
–Notes, markups, hypertext links, sounds, movies
• Actions
–Open, close doc, mouseover, view page, etc
• AcroForms
–Fields can be text or calculated via JavaScript
• Bookmarks
• Embedded files (can be anything!)
• Metadata
–Simple info (Document Properties) or XML/XMP
• Security and digital signatures
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
PDF Workflow requirements
• Printer must have InRIP separation capability
–Composite PDF files have to be separated for most
printing processes
• Can also print separations from Acrobat 6
• Other non-recommended options
–Create pre-separated PDF files
–Placing PDFs as images in layout application and
printing separations from there
Top problems with PDF files
1. Image resolution too low
2. Fonts not embedded
3. Wrong color space
4. Incorrect trim or bleed information
5. Inconsistency with native file (hairlines, gradients)
6. Spot color misnamed or converted to process
7. Too much compression (quality loss)
8. Incorrect page size information
9. Transparent object issues
10. Incorrect or missing ICC profile
• Based on Seybold PDF Usage Survey 2004
Good PDFs start with good native files
• Work with color in a single color space
–CMYK (typical for print) or ICC-tagged RGB
• Reference spot colors by same name every
where they’re used
• Ensure links are unbroken
• Make sure graphics abut properly
• High resolution graphics means 2 pixel per
halftone dot (300 dpi image for 150 lpi output)
• DCS images can result in low resolution
image in final PDF
Good PDFs start with good native files
• Overprinting objects in original files may or
may not be included in PDF
• Transparency used in originals may or may
not be included in PDF
–Ultimately will have to be flattened before printing
• Fonts must be available for inclusion in PDF
and legally embeddable
• Media size specified on page setup must be
able to accommodate all elements on the
page, including bleed objects
Preflight: Finding and Fixing errors
• Tools to preflight native documents
–Markzware FlightCheck
–Gluon QC
• Tools to preflight PDF documents
–Markzware FlightCheck
–Adobe Acrobat Pro 6
–Enfocus Pitstop Pro
–Quite’s Revealing & Quite a Box of Tricks
Markzware FlightCheck
• www.markzware.com
• Venerable preflightapplication on marketsince 1995, withfrequent updates
• Checks a wide rangeof file formatsincluding many nativeapplications and PDF
• Bases check on“Ground Controls”
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Ground Controls (native files) Ground Controls (PDF files)
Gluon QC
• www.gluon.com
• An extension for
Quark & InDesign
• Checks for things
preflight software
doesn’t, like
problems with copy, misaligned page
elements and consistency of rules in a project
• Think of it as a virtual proofreader
Gluon QC
Gluon QC Gluon QC
• Plug-in for QuarkXPress
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Acrobat 6 Pro Preflight
Enfocus Pitstop Pro
• Pitstop Pro is an Adobe Acrobat plug-in that
offers PDF preflight, edit and repair tools
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Quite Revealing & Quite a Box of Tricks
Quite a Box of Tricks Quite Revealing
Quite Revealing PDF: getting there
• Paths to print-quality PDF
• PDF from PostScript
–Acrobat Distiller 6.0
–QuarkXPress 6.0
• PDF direct from applications
–Adobe InDesign & Illustrator
–MacroMedia Freehand
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Remember the problems with PDF files
1. Image resolution too low
2. Fonts not embedded
3. Wrong color space
4. Incorrect trim or bleed information
5. Inconsistency with native file (hairlines, gradients)
6. Spot color misnamed or converted to process
7. Too much compression (quality loss)
8. Incorrect page size information
9. Transparent object issues
10. Incorrect or missing ICC profile
• Based on Seybold PDF Usage Survey 2004
How do we avoid image & color issues
• Assuming your original images are
spectacular (or as good as you need them to
be), how do you make sure they’re included
as such in your PDF file?
• How do you avoid color changes
• Let’s take a look
Lost Resolution
• High resolution images in a native layout
application (Quark, InDesign) can become low
resolution images in a PDF file because the
wrong tool is used to create the PDF file, or
because of incorrect settings in the PDF
creation process
• Once an image is included in low resolution -
it cannot be repaired! Back to designer to fix!
Avoid incorrect OPI settings
• Setting OPI in PDF files when you’re not in a
true image-swapping workflow is a problem
OPI settings from
print dialog in
QuarkXPress 6…
This will give you
low resolution
images in a
resultant PDF file.
If this were the image in the layout… This is what you’ll get in the PDF
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
DCS images & resolution problems
• DCS files don’t work well in compositeworkflows–typically you will get a lowresolution placeholder image only in a PDF!
• Total Integration offers a Quark Xtensioncalled SmartXT that will download the highresolution data from a placed DCS image in aQuark document during the PostScriptprinting phase
• New! DCS files from Photoshop placed intoInDesign CS will come through as highresolution composite image in PDF!
More on DCS2 files in PDF
• Impressed offers a
product, DCSMerger,
that will merge the high
resolution data into a
DCS file so that it can
be used in a composite
workflow
• This is a stand-alone application and you have
to merge the files before you place the image
into the layout application
• www.impressed.de
Bad PDF creation settings can do it too
• Most PostScript interpreters or PDF creation
tools give control over image compression
• The wrong settings can strip the resolution
out of an image file
Image Compression in Distiller
• Acrobat Distiller
offers a variety of
image compression
options
–ZIP
–JPEG
–JPEG 2000 (PDF 1.5
only)
–CCITT Group 3 or 4
–Run Length
JPEG Compression
• JPEG is a lossy compression scheme
–Data is lost when images are compressed
–If files are compressed too far, artifacting will result
• JPEG compression of medium or lower will
put a dot into a white background!
• Sampling images refer to averaging and
removing pixels from raster images
–Resulting in smaller file sizes
• Distiller options are
–Average
Downsampling
–Subsampling
–Bicubic
Downsampling
Sampling Images
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Downsampling: how much is too much?
• Need 2 pixels of image data per halftone dot
• At 150 lpi, images should have an effective
resolution of 300 dpi
• An 8”x10” 300 dpi image scaled to 50% in a
layout application results in a 600 dpi image
• That’s more resolution than is needed to
represent the image once screened, so
downsampling is intended to let the user
throw that excess resolution away
But people go too far
• Some of thecanned Distillersettings havesampling set toolow
• The “Standard”default setting willdownsample allimages to 150 dpi– (if images are above
225 dpi)
Quark Export settings
• JPEG “low” in
Quark Export
means low
compression,
higher quality
• “High” means
high compression,
lower quality
• Opposite of
Distiller JPEG
settings
Places where you can get good settings
• www.ghentpdfworkgroup.org
• www.certifiedpdf.net
• www.pdf-x.com
• Your own printer…..?
Issues with wrong color space What are specific problems?
• GDI applications “RGB” issues
–Text is RGB instead of Black
–All color images are RGB instead of CMYK
• Spot colors converted to RGB or CMYK
• RGB images converted to CMYK without
correct ICC profiles
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
RGB Text to Black,RGB Images to CMYK• Users of Microsoft Office products are using
these applications for print production work
–It’s not something we recommend, but we can’t
deny that it is happening!
• PDF files created using Microsoft Office
products will commonly contain RGB black
text and RGB images even if original is CMYK
or a spot color
–Some output devices will automatically convert
RGB objects to CMYK, so that in this case, the black
text will print on all four plates
Avoid RGB Black Text–1
• Set up the AdobePDF (or Distiller)printer as thedefault printer,navigate to thePrinters and Faxessettings window
• Right-click theAdobe PDF iconand choose Set AsDefault from thepop-up menu
Avoid RGB Black Text–2
• Once that’s been
done, right click the
Adobe PDF printer
icon again and select
Properties from the
pop-up menu
Avoid RGB Black Text–3
• Under the DeviceSettings tab, set“Convert Gray Text toPostScript Gray”
–This will prevent thedreaded “RGB blacktype” problem fromOffice application files
–This is the default settingfor the Adobe PDF printer
–If you’re still using theDistiller printer, you willhave to set this manually
Avoid RGB images & illustrations
• Save graphics in
EPS format &
place these in
layout application
• Will pass through
driver without
conversion to
RGB
PDF from OS X “Save as PDF” may be RGB
• Out of the box, the
“Save as PDF” from
the print dialog under
Mac OSX will result in
RGB colors in a PDF
• You must use the
ColorSync Utility to
create filters to get
CMYK color using this
method
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
ColorSync Utility
• ColorSync filters can include color conversion,
compression and PDF/X-3 compliance
Using the filter
• The filter is used when
you select it along
with using “Save as
PDF”
• Only available through
non-DTP applications
How to repair “RGB-damaged” PDF files
• Quite Software’s Quite a
Box of Tricks
• Enfocus PitStop Pro
–(check out Actions available
on their website to automate
repair process)
Use ICC-profile to convert!
• Pitstop and
QABOT will do a
better job of
converting RGB
to CMYK if you
use a good ICC
profile for the
conversion
Solid builds can be converted to spot Entire document remapped
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Problem: PDF doesn’t match original
• Many of the things we’ve already discussed
adds up to the PDF not matching original
• How the PDF is made really makes a difference
• Problem issues, like colorized TIFF images
from Quark converting to process in a PDF
can be resolved by using the tools properly
Try Quark 6 DeviceN setting
• DeviceN is a
PostScript 3
operator that
allows an object to
be defined by
more than one
color–Like a colorized TIFF
image or a spot to
process blend
–Without special help
these will result in
CMYK color in PDF
Quark 6 : Device N
• The new Device N
color option in Quark
6 eliminates the need
for special plugins to
maintain things like
spot colors in
colorized TIFFs or
spot to spot blends
Quark 6 : CMYK = CMYK & spot
• Selecting CMYK
results in PDF files
in which spot colors
in blends will default
to their process
equivalents
• Fake duotones
(colorized TIFF
images) also default
to CMYK
Acrobat display can be part of problem
• Use tools available to help properly display
PDF files and come closer to WYSIWYG
Use Overprint Preview
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Use Overprint Preview Use Overprint Preview
Don’t Use Smooth Images
• PDF file with flattened transparent objects can
show strange lines between the objects
• These don’t actually print (in most cases) but
this makes selling the PDF soft proof to
clients more difficult
• Here’s what we’re talking about, and how to
fix it…
Don’t Use Smooth Images
Don’t Use Smooth Images
• Open Acrobat
Preferences and
select the
Smoothing option
• Uncheck Smooth
line are and
Smooth images
Lines disappear
Managing Color & Graphics ina PDF Workflow
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PDF Conference 2004Presented by Julie Shaffer, PIA GATF
Wrap up
• A PDF file can include everything you
intended from the original, as long as it was
created properly!
• PDF files with color problems can often be
corrected with tools like Pitstop or QABOT
Thanks for listening! Questions?
• The all-new PDF PrintProduction Guide
–Over 270 pages exploringthe problems, solutions,tools, and techniquesspecific to using PDF inprepress
–Covers Acrobat 6 andMac OS X
• Order now atwww.gain.net–Click on the bookstoreand products button