Measuring color values

[scanwolf]

If I measure the color values in a picture I get results that differ if I measure in Acrobat or in PitStop. This must have been discussed before but I couldn´t find it so...
Which one to trust and I´d like an explanation of what´s happening as well

 

[CHM]

I don't see diffirence. Can you give us a example?

 

[scanwolf]

I have attached a screenshot showing what happens. I guess it has something to do with "Simulation Profile" (direct translation from the Swedish menu) but I´d like to get an objective reading. What values do the objects in the picture hav?. Which one should I trust?

 

[tobiv]

Can you click on objectinspector and then click on your text? Now you see in the list a few lines of text. Can you post a new sceenshot of the objectinspector window? Then i can explain this text to you.

 

[scanwolf]

Actually the text is made in Illustrator and converted to objects. So this is what it looks like with the Inspector part of the screen shoot

 

[scanwolf]

I should say this is Acrobat X and PitStop Pro 10, update 2

 

[tobiv]

i meant the objectinspector part of adobe color separations window... can you post the pdf?

 

[scanwolf]

I guess your Swedish might not be quite up to date so here´s a crude translation of at least the main sections:
Filled pathway: Picture: Colorspace: Indexed Device RGB
Picture attributes: Size, bits/pixel, filter
Overprint: False OPM

and the same for next picture.

 

[tobiv]

yeah thank you for the translation
now I see the problem, its rgb the sep. window convert it to cmyk (over lab) using the simulation profil you deicide above. pitstop uses his own settings (i dont acutally know how the eyedrop makes the conversion). in illustrator you can choose the color mode of the file (for print cmyk...). for this text i would suggest to use only black ink (100%). How did you save the pdf file? Did you convert the text to an image in illu? Thats not necessary. In fact it's better to leave the text editable, then you can easy modify it later. Did you know that .ai files are in fact pdf files? Under the condition that you check the mark «PDF compatible file» when you save the file.

 

[scanwolf]

I was not involved in the creation of this job. All I got was a pdf. This is actually very typical of the type of jobs we get. With PitStop you can, sort of, replay the (mis)steps leading up to the mess I get to try to sort out. This should of course be printed as 100% black but since it was made in Illustrator as RGB black, probably placed in InDesign and exported to pdf (probably without knowing how to do that properly), you get many steps on the way and a unnecessary complex file. But enough ranting. I would really like PitStop to report this is RGB when I measure it and not trying to guess what this RGB would become converted to CMYK.

 

[tobiv]

oh yeah, i know crappy data, it's sad to fix things «at the end», because you do it every time again..
i find the Show: popup menu of the sep. window very usefull. When you open a file and choose RGB, you see every RGB element of the page.
To fix this pdf you can use a max. gcr icc profil for the colour conversion.
oh and sorry, that I accused you to make such crappy data