PDF & CMYK

I'm preparing a booklet for a charitable cause that needs to go to a commercial printer due to the number of copies required. The printer that I'm considering using is quite prescriptive about the file format that they require. This is an extract from their specification:

Pdf – format
When creating a pdf please ensure that you observe the “Borders and Bleeds” section above and make sure you embed all the fonts. Any photos or graphics should be embedded without compression and MUST be in CMYK . The pdf MUST be in a CMYK format.
Jpeg – format
When creating a jpeg please ensure that you observe the “Borders and Bleeds” section above and make sure you save in the highest quality option. Any photos or graphics should be embedded without compression and MUST be in CMYK. The Jpeg MUST be in a CMYK format.

1. I understand what RGB and CMYK are but how do I know what format the photos and graphics in my document are in? Some of them are shapes created with Pages. Some are JPEG photos from my camera and some are pdfs of artwork from sponsors. There doesn’t seem to be any info available in Pages, iPhoto or in the Finder. I’ve even downloaded an EXIF tool but it doesn’t tell me if the photos are in RGB or CMYK format.

2. I’d planned to save the document as a PDF/X file. Does this somehow automatically ensure that my graphics and photos are CMYK? I looked at the Color Sync Destination Profile and it says Generic CMYK.

3. How can I guarantee that my pdf and the embedded graphics/photos are in CMYK? I realise that if this were a professional publication then one would go to great lengths to ensure the colours were right. For this document though, near enough is OK.

I've read a number of threads on CMYK and RGB conversion here. None seemed to reach a suitable conclusion for me.

Please don’t tell me to use Photoshop or InDesign. I can’t justify the cost of those applications.

iMac 17" Flat Panel (OS X 10.4.8)

Posted on Mar 21, 2007 4:12 AM

21 replies

IanB Author

Level 4

1,374 points

Mar 21, 2007 5:23 PM in response to Tulse

Hi Tulse

I understood what you meant and I directly answered you. When I do Get Info on the original JPEGs, I get no colorspace detail in the More Information section but Preview does.

I appreciate you trying to help me 🙂

Mar 22, 2007 9:16 AM in response to IanB

IanB, you might want to investigate Adobe's online PDF creation service. This allows you to maintain device dependent profiles like CMYK. It's a subscription service, but you do get 5 free conversions as a trial.. You would need to do the Postscript conversion before uploading.

http://createpdf.adobe.com/cgi-feeder.pl/formats?BP=&LOC=en_US#webcapture

(you will need a browser other than Safari to use the site)

IanB Author

Level 4

1,374 points

Mar 22, 2007 9:28 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

Barbara

Thanks for another useful reply. Looks like this or Acrobat is the only way to go at the moment. In case it helps anyone else reading this in the future, it's also confirmed by this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3448080&#3448080

IMHO, the Save As PDF-X feature is broken and not using ColorSync correctly.

Mar 26, 2007 3:32 AM in response to IanB

I'm not convinced Apple does anything formally wrong with the PDF-X export. PDF/X-3 does accept RGB, and PDF/X-3 is what they claim to support. A lot of printers may require earlier versions with only CMYK, but Apple probably have a feeling that all printers inevitably will move to PDF/X-3.

On the other hand, as discussed in separate mails, I am not at all impressed by the configuration and UI of ColorSync. I crashed it about five times yesterday alone.

IanB Author

Level 4

1,374 points

Mar 26, 2007 4:28 AM in response to SermoDaturCunctis

Magnus

You are right. My earlier comment was misinformed. I didn't understand what was happening when you choose Save As PDF-X on the PDF button in a print dialog.

I still don't get it fully but it runs a workflow in /Library/PDF Services/. This uses the standard Create Generic PDF/X-3 Quartz filter. However there is also some trickery wrapped around it because the PDF is created first to be passed into the workflow and it allows you to choose a filename to save it to afterwards.

I'm not sure that it takes any notice of the other settings in the Print dialog e.g. if you choose greyscale, you still get a color pdf-x.

Magnus has been fantastically helpful off line, solved the problem and I just refined his solution a little. If you ever want a PDF-X with CMYK only, this worked for me:

In a nutshell, use Automator to create your own menu item in the menu that appears when you click on the PDF button in the print dialog.

I created two of my own Quartz filters: one to convert the profiles of the pdf to CMYK and one to create a PDF-X. I couldn't get both things applied in a single filter and it seems that doing the colour space conversion followed by PDF-X creation as separate filters and steps is necessary.

In Automator I then created a three step workflow that applied my filters in that order and saved the result to the desktop. I saved the workflow as a plug in to the Print workflow so it appears on the PDF menu in the print dialog.

The resultant file passed PreFlight on a demo copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional on Windows and all the images were converted to CMYK.

I've learned a lot investigating this but, in the end, Barbara's original advice was quite right - get the printer to do it for you. Even if they demand CMYK, ask them to convert your file. In my experience the printer was quite happy to do it at no charge. Now that I've seen a pre-flight tool, I understand how easy it is for them to do. They could incorporate the right colour profile for their output devices at the same time.

You have to be prepared to sacrifice some accuracy on the colour match so request a proof before the final run to ensure the results aren't too whacky. If you require the colours to be perfect, you probably should be using a higher end tool than Pages.

Barbara, Magnus, Tulse thank you all so much for your time. I wish I had more stars to give.

Apr 19, 2007 2:44 PM in response to IanB

Totally right with all above.
Another option may be to use the printer machine PPD. So it is virtually possible to produce a document (PS or and PDF) specially with the PostScript Printer Description fom your partner. Then using print with the correct selected PPD will normally produce a document in the destination profile (the printer machine). Tell me if I'm wrong, I never tried that but still very curious.
Still another option : use teh commercial Adobe Acrobat.

Read "Mac OS X 10.4: Included printer drivers and PostScript PPD files":
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301175-en

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PDF & CMYK