Simple question for my simple mind.....

[xcelprint]

I am a printer with 30+ years experience, but now I am working with customer supplied pdf files. I have a simple black and white print job, but there are specs and spots on the white background when I print out a copy of the pdf.

I'm sure there is some way I can "erase" or cover up the unwanted spots. Would appreciate a tip. I have CS4.

Thanks!

[Mark]

you could always place pages in indesign and put white boxes over spots, if you don't have any pdf editors

[xcelprint]

I will try that. I have acrobat pro 9.1.2

Have tried under tools, advanced editing, etc but no luck so far. I will try the white box method in ID.

Thanks.

[buckeye]

I find that when jobs come into Pre-Press and they say it's a simple black and white job, it rarely ever is. If you could post a sample of one of the pages, we could possibly give you a couple of suggestions.

Erik

[pdan]

Marks answer is simple, safe, least prone to problems. It ensures that your not changing the source file, only improving your end product visually. Get in the habit of using a new layer for your "edits".
Illustrator can open pdf's, but you will triple your time, with some occsaional unnoticed errors, if you're not adept at the program.
Photoshop would actually best clean up the artifacts you are seeing, if you are functionally proficient; but would yield far larger files. Avoid Photoshop as well, 1200 dpi raster pages tend to crash or bottleneck a small RIP and network.

All these hammer and nail fixes assume you are receiving bad pdf's from persons who have no professional ties to the industry.

[michaelejahn]

Without understanding what is actually in that pdf that is creating these dots, it is hard to say what approach is best. If this PDF is a scan of a document, you know, where the dot are in am image, you can use the touch up object tool to select - then open - that image in Photoshop, then save it back to the PDF.

if you are unfamiliar;

YouTube - lynda.com Tutorial | Acrobat X Essential Training—Editing images and graphics

This was created by my friend Anne-Marie Concepcion for lynda.com

If this is confusing, email me privately - michael@composeusa.com - would be happy to help.

[Akila]

I am a printer with 30+ years experience, but now I am working with customer supplied pdf files. I have a simple black and white print job, but there are specs and spots on the white background when I print out a copy of the pdf.

I'm sure there is some way I can "erase" or cover up the unwanted spots. Would appreciate a tip. I have CS4.

Thanks!

in acrobat you can off unnecessary colors. try it

[DanB]

You could use the Adobe Acrobat redaction tool. Before you do, make a backup copy of the original PDF incase you redact too much.