Edit Image in PDFs

I

InvisSoul

Well-known member
Our customers are sending more PDF's to us now and sometimes we have to do color work to images in these files.

We use Prinergy and after we refine the file we do our normal proofing process of folding/content proof and color epson proofs. A customer may ask us to make a color move as the only correction. We would like to not refine the file again for these.

In most cases we can open the refined pdf file and use the Edit Object tool in acrobat and open the image up with photoshop and make out color move, save the image and it updates the pdf. Some files are not so nice and won't let us select that image to edit, it might give us an object box but not the image.

So who out there edits images in their processed files and do you have these types of problems occasionally with editing an image in a pdf? If so what was your solution.

Thanks!
 
We don't make a habit of editing PDFs. We'll do it once or twice for a client, but ask that if there is a possibility of making changes, please send the raw files that were used to create the PDF.

When we do edit PDFs to change text or images, I have hit the problem you are having. The solution we usually go with is to open the PDF in Adobe Illustrator and edit it there, then save another PDF. In AI you can edit any element of the PDF, but by editing one part you may lose an "effect" that had been applied to multiple parts of the document, and have no real way of getting it back. If that happens, we sometimes recreate the entire document in InDesign. for whatever reason, sales folk have a certain aversion to talking with their clients unless they are going to make another sale. Getting them to ask for job specifications or new files can be challenging.
 
If you must edit an image and you can't get hold of it… save a copy of the file. Extract the page and deleta all objects but the image you need to edit, this will work even on an atomised image.
when you have just the image you can now open that page in Photoshop to do the edits. The image can then be placed on top of the original in Acrobat.
I find showing rulers so that I can set guides helps place the edited image in the right place. For some reason the right clicking to send to back and bring to front stopped working after Acrobat 4.0.
(Since this is as sensitive as dissarming a nuclear missile allways do it on a copy of the original file, and there may be some radiation at the end of the manipulation ;p Actually never did try dissarming a bomb, but guess that's the kind of thing you DO rather than TRY if you're going to live to tell)
 
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Since you're already running Prinergy, you'll want to take a look at the PDF File Editor option. It overcomes many of the problems associated with the Acrobat-based editing tools. See YouTube - Prinergy PDF File Editing for a brief overview.
If you're on Prinergy 5.0 or up, you should be able to request a temporary license from eCentral, re-install Workshop (to install the plugin), and away you go!
 
I guess I just mean that the vendors immediately believe their product is the answer and spew their marketing nonsense back to people with questions on how to get something done.
 
I don't think I've ever been unable to grab an image, and I use it all the time. I believe there is a relevant preference in Acrobat - something about the edit object tool preferring images versus text/objects. If I did have the same problem, I'd probably try bringing the object to the front with Pitstop, or maybe cut everything that's on top, then edit, then paste.
 
There are a lot of things that will prevent you from using the "object touch-up tool" in Acrobat.
Index color is one, un-recognized color space, and some forms of transparency on images are others.

Some you can fix by down sampling the image by 1 (if its 300, down sample to 299). If it is a form of index color with transparency, you can try to (with Pitstop), remove the transparency and then re-apply it. Once you do these, you can then use the object touch up tool and open the file in Photoshop to do your edits (sometimes).
 
It kills me that tools (especially Acrobat/PhotoShop) can't edit a indexed color image. It's completely ridiculous...
 
disbellj said:
Yep, just one area of Acrobat "Professional" being held back and treated as a red-headed step-child.
Click to expand...

From what I've learned the problem is in Photoshop. There are several more colorspace descriptions in PDF than there are in Photoshop.
 
Selling hammers when a screw drive might be a better option

Selling hammers when a screw drive might be a better option

Talking Tech said:
I guess I just mean that the vendors immediately believe their product is the answer and spew their marketing nonsense back to people with questions on how to get something done.
Click to expand...

Yes, guilty as charged. So, what is a problem to one is an opportunity to sell a solution to another.

So, my take is, that we have a poorly formed PDF that somehow converted the image data into some color space that prevents on from using Acrobat > Tools > Advanced Editing > Touchup Object tool - because some PDF making thing that was used wrote that image into a PDF in such a way that Photoshop can't open.

So, yes, there are clumsy work-arounds, but if you have to do this all day to thousands of images in hundreds of pages, well, that one by one approach is simply crazy.

In cases such as these, there are several vendor products available, but I happen to like Kolor-D, because i can set it up to change all images automatically, or have it extract all the images, then present them one at a time, and apply different filters to each on on a case by case basis.

So, in summary, if the PDF making thing can be replaced, by all means, you should not be making PDF files that disallow Adobe products to edit images - or - perhaps, if you only have this happen occasionally, you can do what adobe says NEVER to do, which is open the PDF in Illustrator and cross you fingers that it does not break some other part of the page (which is absolutely can ! )

Hope this helps. And no, we are not a reseller of Kolor-D.

Not yet anyway !
 
michaelejahn said:
Yes, guilty as charged. So, what is a problem to one is an opportunity to sell a solution to another.

So, my take is, that we have a poorly formed PDF that somehow converted the image data into some color space that prevents on from using Acrobat > Tools > Advanced Editing > Touchup Object tool - because some PDF making thing that was used wrote that image into a PDF in such a way that Photoshop can't open.

So, yes, there are clumsy work-arounds, but if you have to do this all day to thousands of images in hundreds of pages, well, that one by one approach is simply crazy.

In cases such as these, there are several vendor products available, but I happen to like Kolor-D, because i can set it up to change all images automatically, or have it extract all the images, then present them one at a time, and apply different filters to each on on a case by case basis.

So, in summary, if the PDF making thing can be replaced, by all means, you should not be making PDF files that disallow Adobe products to edit images - or - perhaps, if you only have this happen occasionally, you can do what adobe says NEVER to do, which is open the PDF in Illustrator and cross you fingers that it does not break some other part of the page (which is absolutely can ! )

Hope this helps. And no, we are not a reseller of Kolor-D.

Not yet anyway !
Click to expand...

So, quit using the ADOBE InDesign Export option? Because it can and does give you indexed images sometimes...and they cannot be edited with Photoshop.
 
kyle said:
I don't think I've ever been unable to grab an image, and I use it all the time. I believe there is a relevant preference in Acrobat - something about the edit object tool preferring images versus text/objects. If I did have the same problem, I'd probably try bringing the object to the front with Pitstop, or maybe cut everything that's on top, then edit, then paste.
Click to expand...


It depends on how the original file that became a pdf was made, really. There are cases where the source is the problem, it can be flattened/set to other settings etc. and then still be saved as a pdf file-type. Which can be a pita for editing depending. A good example of an evil of the world: Word/Publisher Pdf's lol. Yay!

The object/imaging tool thing can be problematic. My experience is that Pit Stop can cover just about anything that object editing in the pdf/photoshop can't. It won't always solve everything, but I think the things pitstop/pdf object editing can't solve is the point I'd say it's time to go back to the original file source.

Or just flatten it into photoshop and put whatever you want on it after editing whatever else you want for laughs. :p
 
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