Change a CMYK colour in a pdf

It gets kind of tricky and depends on what the colored elements are. Illustrator usually is the easiest general tool for fixing pdfs generated from some page layout apps.

If you extract one of the colored pages from the pdf via using Acrobat and open that in AI, you can use the direct selection tool to select the colored object. That will usually make the fill color appear in the fill button on the tools menu. You then drag that to the swatches pallette, change it to the color you need (spot of process), check the "global" box and the color changes. In a few cases you have to use the eyedropper tool to get the original color, drag that to the swatches menu, change it, selct the correct object with the direct selection tool and apply the new color. Then save that page as a pdf and combine it with the origina; in Acrobat pro - replacing the original page. Then repeat with other pages.

The above usually works of text, fills etc - anything but rasterized images. In the case of those you usually have to open just the image (after extracting that image in Acrobat) in photoshop, fixing it and inserting the new image over the old in Indesign - after placing the original pdf into ID.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

...yes, definitely gets tricky if all you have is acrobat pro...

...with some jobs like this you can sometimes get away with running out just one of the process plates and print it on press as a spot color...

...this depends on the file structure and in particular how your raster images will break down if only using one of the process plates...

Andrew

Thanks for the prompt response, I have been away for the weekend so am just going to investigate your answer.
After I had sent the note I thought I should have mentioned that I have Illustrator and Photoshop, although I dont use them a great deal, as most of my work comes without having to change anything.
Regards SOG61

jmgalvin
Have tried it out in Illustrator, and yes looks OK, I think I learn something new everyday. Thanks very much

Andrew (appep)
I did think of printing the Magenta plate in 032 but was concerned that it might appear as a tint because of the yellow percentage not being used. Especially as the cover section will use 032 but taken out of the CMYK.
Any way looks as if I am OK now, thanks for your advice
SOG61