Rich Black in RGB workflow

[MWinME]

I'm wondering what other shops are doing to handle the conversion of Rich Black from an RGB workflow into CMYK. We're keeping our PDFs in Adobe 98 until they're managed for the individual device. Areas that were created to be a Rich Black end up in an undesirable mix of CMYK without a solid black under our conversion setup. As we're moving into automation with Switch and Pitstop Server, I see the possibility of making Rich Black a Spot Color and managing it individually from the other colors in Pitstop Server. Our conversion will probably get revamped in the next month too. How are others handling this?

[mglouis]

MWinME,

Our Twist workflow allows similar RGB values to covert to black ink only tints but my preference is to accept the rich black per the destination profile because it looks better. You could get this feature form Puzzleflow for the same cost as Switch and Pitstop Server I would think. For lineart we use CMY-Pullback to avoid register issues on press. For raster art we take it on the chin but the press problems from this are VERY few and far between. When it does happen we get plenty of drama from the presscrews but we will not allow exceptional jobs to drive general policy.

Matt Louis

[mattbeals]

There are a few things that can be done to help with this depending on how deep you want to go. But much or all of it can be done with what you have already. Give me a call if you want to discuss it. Even in the images there are things that can be done.

[rich apollo]

When it does happen we get plenty of drama from the presscrews but we will not allow exceptional jobs to drive general policy.

VERY nicely stated, Matt. Hope you don't mind if I steal this.

[mattbeals]

That is very well stated. A nicer way of explaining the 80/20 rule.

[Sam Smith]

Can be done easily in Pitstop server

decide on what RGB values are going to be considered RGB black or a range you wish to map to rich black

Use action list

select all or Select specific objects e.g text, lineart.
Use remap colour function
Create remap from colour for specific RGB color or colour range for ambiguous colour.
Create the output CMYK value for your desired flavour of rich black

Repeat for all possible colour spaces device RGB, calibrated RGB, Grayscale etc.

[mglouis]

It's all yours Rich

[MWinME]

Thanks guys. You've given me a few more good ideas to chew on.