Hardest Pitstop Server / Switch question ever...

[kaiserwilhelm]

Question after the setup:
Say I have a letter. It might go digital or it might go conventional.
I want to start the PDF out of Indesign with say 9 spots, CMYK on the front and 1 spot and black on the back.
I want the extra spots to get a much better piece off the digital press. (I have 1.3 billion feet of digital under my feet,
so I know what I need)
Conventional needs to end up as 5/2 (CMYK plus 286) over (K plus 286)
But, alas, my PDF is 9/2
Name of file is XXXYYY.pdf

PDF is brought in from folder and goes two paths.
Path one - digital. Leave alone, but maybe run an EAL for this or that.
Path two - convert ALL colors except 286 into CMYK
Now, imagine that I have a way of attaching the pms numbers that MUST stay for conventional. They are 286, on the front and back to the name of the file.
So, along one path of Switch, I have a pdf named: XXXYYY_F286_B286

Question - is there a way to dynamically make Switch / Pitstop Server convert all spots to CMYK...EXCEPT for the ones that it reads from the name of the file?

 

[abc]

Two bits of feedback from the team. BTW not the hardest question by a very long way.

You can create a variable set in Switch with a dynamic variable.

This variable's value would need to be of type 'Text with variables' and value (for example, but depending on your filename): [Job.NameProper:Search="\d+"] - or, if there are multiple spot colours, add different variables here, with a '|' pipe symbol in between, which can then in your regular expression later on, be used as an 'OR'.

Then, in your action list you would:
- Select All
- Select Spot Color ( > Select Spot Color by regular expression > and add your variable name as chosen in the variable set)
- NOT (to NOT select that/those spot colors)
- Convert color to CMYK

Which would convert all colour, except the ones defined by the filename, to CMYK.

 

[abc]

Additionally, using a free app from the Switch App Store.

If the names of the colors are in the filename and the filename is structured using for example underscores, you can use the free app StringSplitter to have a set of private data variables with the names of the inks and these can be glued together separated by a pipe symbol for use in the “Select spot color by regular expression” action.