Exporting Spot Plate from PDF

[Sherbert]

Hey guys,

Just received a job. Basically its a CMYK+Spot Pdf, the spot layer is for the cutter guide.

Normally customers send in 2 files 1 Cutter, 1 Artworking.

For arguements sake, I don't have the fonts and there not outlined. So can't use Illy. (Plus, PDF's arn't really meant for Illy)

How would I go about getting 2 files? 1 Cutter, 1 Artwork.

Using CS2 with Acrobat Pro 8.

Is this a Pitstop thing?

 

[error19]

under TOOLS-ADVANCED EDITING-TOUCH UP OBJECT TOOL
you can select all the cutter lines and delete them and save it as "artwork" and then do the same for the cutter die lines.

 

[Sherbert]

Well, thats what I do anyhow. Theres no better way? I thought you would somehow be able to remove plates in Acrobat.

 

[kaiserwilhelm]

I have actions setup in Pitstop. I generally give them names that my clients send in - ie, DIESTRIKE, DIE, etc.
If I get a strange one I edit my action on the fly and hit the magic Enfocus button.
You could download a 30 day trial of Pitstop I think.

 

[leonardr]

You can do it quite easily with Acrobat 9's Preflight tool, but not with Acrobat 8 (sorry).

 

[rich apollo]

If the die is properly set up as a spot color and is set to overprint, there is no need to separate the dieline from the CMYK. I prefer to have the whole enchilada together to see how stuff is fitting.

If you just gotta' give the die-cutter a separate file; place the PDF into InDesign and print a separated postscript file of just the dieline color. Distill that and you have a separate PDF for the die.

 

[Robert Online]

Scenario to export plates from PDF

Scenario to export plates from PDF

It's probably a very late answer, but I had a similar scenario where I needed to delete plates from my PDF file.

The alternative that I used was opening the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat. In the print dialogue, I edited the "advanced" settings to "color seprations" mode. After selecting the desired plates, I printed the document to "Adobe PDF X.x" printer.

 

[CHM]

why would you wanna have 2 sepparate files?
If the file is buildup right your RIP should be able to ignore that color.

 

[Robert Online]

Let's say you have a PDF document containing a complete set of process colours along with a die-cut spot colour.

This would be a suitable method to separate the die-cut plate from the CMYK should you want to send the "die-cut" plate separately to a certain supplier.

This is the issue that orignally started this thread by Sherbert.

 

[beermonster]

simples

<shhhh - don't tell the adobe people - i may get shot>

ok lets agree that illy isn't "supposed" to open pdf's - thats my disclaimer....

right - outline the fonts in acrobat first, then save as "whatever"

open "whatever" file in illy and delete all graphics except the cutter - if you need this to go to artios or cad then save as illy3 eps and blammo - done

or....

do the above to firstly get the cutter as a seperate element, and save as illy eps/ai file - then..

in acrobat delete the cutter using the object touch up tool - when done save

THEN drop newly sans cutter pdf into indy, and drop new illy cutter over the top

2 methods there - enjoy - i do this stuff all day every day and it works a dream - NEVER had ANY problems at all

as a footnote this works perfect as long as the ORIGINAL cutter was vector victor - if not take the cutter to photoshop and create paths, export paths to illy

good luck

 

[beermonster]

oh - and i'd LOVE to be able to select colour 'plates" in acrobat and remove as a "whole" rather than as individual elements - ok obviously ya might not want to remove "cyan" from an image but ya get the idea. all too often i get cartons in that have artios cut, crease, fold etc etc all as different "spot" colours and i need to get shot of them

unless u can and i dont know how that is

and no i do not have pitstop.......

 

[mattbeals]

You can use Callas pdfToolbox to create a layer and then remove the other elements on the other layer.

 

[irreality]

why not print the individual separation to PS ? then distill to make separate files. - Recombine them in Rip ?

 

[mattbeals]

You could even use Axaio MadeToPrint XT to export two separate PDF's. One with the base layer and the other with the die lines in one step.