It is true that transparency, gradients aka smooth shading and spot colors are a PDF workflow's Achile heel. Short of having a permanent solution, the best bet is to avoid freely mixing those elements on a page. Even if a smart preflight program was to catch these elements in a PDF, it would probably be on the 11th hour and there would be very little time left for making design changes. The business of handling PDFs with these elements is not a problem in itself IMO. The problem begins when reseparating images and graphics for the purpose of matching a press condition or to save ink. There, anything can happen and will happen. Everybody likes PDF and it is here to stay. In most instances, it works. Like 99.8% of the time, which isn't bad in itself. The rest of the time, issues have to be caught before making plates. At the quantity of pages that go through a typical workflow, no one can give 100% assurance that everything will go through smoothly, all the time. But everybody strives for 100%. Best / Roger Breton -----Original Message----- From: colorsync-users-bounces+graxx=videotron.ca@lists.apple.com [mailto:colorsync-users-bounces+graxx=videotron.ca@lists.apple.com] On Behalf Of Marc Sitkin Sent: August-24-12 9:34 AM To: colorsync-users@lists.apple.com Subject: Re: PDF, spot colors,RIPs, and ink jet printers We've had terrible results printing any pdf via a RIP if transparency and spot color was involved. The explanation from out RIP vendor was that the problem was a result of the conversion process differing from Adobe's color engine. We've had to RIP files to tiff in photoshop first as a workaround. On 8/24/2012 9:27 AM, Steve Miller wrote:
I've been doing some research with PDF files and RIPs. We want to have a PDF only workflow and one RIP vender is saying we should not use PDF files. Instead, they recommend .eps, .tif or .jpg. Here's a reply from one RIP vender.
"The pdf print engine is implemented as a base feature in the" (enter any vender name here) " RIP programs. It has advanced handling of pdf and pdfx file formats. It was necessary for" (enter any vender name here) "to add this feature due to Adobe's constant alteration of the pdf encoding process and handling of transparencies, spot color handling in gradients, and compression methods. There is a basic flaw in the conversion of spot color in the pdf format to the rastered ink dots of an inkjet printer. This is a problem that all RIPs have.. It is a problem inherent in the pdf format being rendered into the inkjet dot format. The repeat printability of colors suffers in this format. While Adobe also alters the EPS format, color consistency from print to print is stable."
Is this a true statement?
Regards, -- Marc Sitkin NEW ADDRESS! digitalmomentum,llc 1700 NW 15th Ave Suite 360 Pompano Beach, FL 33069 954-973-2670 phone 888-880-5851 web site: www.digitalmomentum.com Support Sports for Israel Maccabi Usa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO6tgwZTwTA _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Colorsync-users mailing list (Colorsync-users@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/colorsync-users/graxx%40videotron.ca This email sent to graxx@videotron.ca