PitStop 7.52: DeviceN color space errors

[leog]

In PitStop 7.52 I checked a PDF/X-4 file with the PDF/X-4 Verify profile. PitStop reported: "DeviceN color space contains spot colours that are not defined in its Colorants dictionary"
What does this mean? The document was generated from InDesign CS4 and there weren't any spot colours.
Acrobat 9 "Verify compliance with the PDF/X-4" preflight didn't find any errors in the document.
Anyway, I made an action in PitStop and I corrected all these elements to CMYK but I would like to know what this error means.
And another question: I use the PitStop preflight profile "SheetCMYK_1v3" but PitStop didn't report that in the document were some areas where the ink coverage was more than 330 percent. Is that an error?
Thank you,
Leo

 

[the_brain]

In PitStop 7.52 I checked a PDF/X-4 file with the PDF/X-4 Verify profile. PitStop reported: "DeviceN color space contains spot colours that are not defined in its Colorants dictionary"
What does this mean? The document was generated from InDesign CS4 and there weren't any spot colours.
Acrobat 9 "Verify compliance with the PDF/X-4" preflight didn't find any errors in the document.
Anyway, I made an action in PitStop and I corrected all these elements to CMYK but I would like to know what this error means.

The error doesn't necessarily mean you are using spot colors per say. It could be that there are some shadings or other object with a DeviceN colorspace in the document. PitStop might see the colors used in the DeviceN as spot instead of process colors.
FYI: In the preflight report you can always use the 'i' icon in front of the error to get more information about the error.

And another question: I use the PitStop preflight profile "SheetCMYK_1v3" but PitStop didn't report that in the document were some areas where the ink coverage was more than 330 percent. Is that an error?
Thank you,
Leo

Are the areas part of an image? The SheetCMYK_1V3 profile doesn't check the ink coverage on image, only on text and line-art.
What you can do is preflight the file separately for ink coverage. Create a new PDF Profile where you enable the process color category and the check on ink coverage + you include images to this check. Afterwards you can still preflight to be GWG compatible.

Hi Leo,

 

[leog]

Thanks a lot, it is very useful.
I think the problem was the gradient from InDesign. Now I'm checking this, I'll post later the results.
Thanks for the tip with the preflight profile.
Leo

 

[leog]

I checked different gradients in InDesign and Illustrator. In some cases PitStop reported the same errors, in others the report found nothing.
I think I've understood, the Output Intent can't reproduce all these colours, it has a smaller gamut. In this case the Output Intent was CoatedFOGRA39.
Am I right?
Thanks,
Leo

P.S. The-brain, the prepress preflight profile Sheetfed Offset (CMYK) in Acrobat 9 checks the same as the PitStop profile, doesn't it?

 

[the_brain]

I checked different gradients in InDesign and Illustrator. In some cases PitStop reported the same errors, in others the report found nothing.
I think I've understood, the Output Intent can't reproduce all these colours, it has a smaller gamut. In this case the Output Intent was CoatedFOGRA39.
Am I right?
Thanks,
Leo

P.S. The-brain, the prepress preflight profile Sheetfed Offset (CMYK) in Acrobat 9 checks the same as the PitStop profile, doesn't it?

I don't too much about DeviceN color spaces, but you could be right. I'm not sure if it's the output intent that's causing the problem. Maybe someone with more color experience can answer this one for you.

If the preflight profile is compatible with the SheetCMYK_1v3 GWG standard then yes it will check at least for the same problems.

Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance.

Cheers,
Bert

 

[leog]

Bert,
your comment was very helpful.
Thanks,
Leo