Running 2 colour PDFs out to Film

[MarcusStringer]

Hi All.

I am having a hell of a time trying to get my film house
to output 2 colour PDFs as separations.
When they try to output it they get 4 colour sep instead.
They are using the AGFA Apogee RIP, which I am sure is the problem. I've been talking to the AGFA guy which gave me a Quark extension which has so far failed every test.
I know other places I've spoken to can do it. They run different RIPs ie Heildberg and Barco etc.I've double checked everything through pitstop... and
also ran some test film out at other places.
I know I can take my business elsewhere, but I'm
getting it done cheap and would like to fix it.

I can't be the only person in the world.

Has anyone had the same problem and how did you
overcome it?

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[signal49]

Hi Marcus,

I just ran into a similar problem and posted an idea tip:

http://tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?SQID=807093&SPID=223&page=1

See if this helps you at all… I was just browsing back through some of the older posts, and since no has responded yet, thought I'd give you a heads up Does the film house have Acrobat 6? Earlier versions can't do spot seps.

 

[MarcusStringer]

Hi Signal49,

Are you Serious...

Does the film house have Acrobat 6? Earlier versions can't do spot seps.

If that's all it is I'm going to scream, you have no idea how long I've been trying to solve this problem, and I can't find any documentation anywhere about this problem.

Your not playing with my emotions are you??

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[signal49]

LOL!

I thought you were mad at me! No, I'm totally serious. Acrobat 6 is the first version that supports spot colors. All ealier versions convert everything to CMYK.

 

[tgreer]

I'm not sure about this. PostScript has supported /Separation colorspaces since Level 2, and /DeviceN colorspaces in Level 3.

I routinely write custom PostScript, including spot color definitions and so forth, convert them to PDFs, and run out proper separations. I've been doing this for a few years, well before Acrobat 6.0!

I do recall problems with Quark Xpress, however. My nice PDFs with proper spot colors, when placed in Xpress and output from Xpress, would default back to cmyk. That was the fault of Xpress, though, not the PDF or Acrobat.







Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting

 

[MarcusStringer]

Thanks guys,

I'll take all that on board and do some more tests....
hopefully if I stick to Acrobat 6 Level 3 Postscript all the way through then with a bit of luck my combined 2 colour PDF's will seperate out properly (also hold transparency's)

cross your fingers (I'm not feeling confident)

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[signal49]

Wow, Thomas, you're way ahead of me! I know nothing about writing custom post script… I create everything from Quark or InDesign/PageMaker (when I have to), and when I used to Distill those files to pdf with versions earlier than 6, all my colors were changed to CMYK. I couldn't wait for 6 Pro to come out JUST so we could accept 2-color jobs as pdf! Writing custom stuff is too advanced for me - so now I can rely on Acrobat!

 

[tgreer]

Yeah, Quark is what was messing up your colorspaces. I don't know about InDesign. PageMaker 6.5 output notoriously bad PostScript.



Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting