Publisher PDFs

[rande]

It seems that all PDF publisher files come out RGB.
Am I right on that or is there away for them to be saved properly? We don't have it ourselves.
I don't know what version they have yet.
I normally open every photo with pitstop 7 acro 7 and convert, or else they look
bad. I for the most part don't use CM but is there away in Acrobat/pitstop to convert
these and have them come out okay? with maybe a few exception.

thanks
Rande

 

[cjwworld]

acrobat professional has an option to convert colors. i believe its under tools. you can select what you want to convert to. Pitstop you can do a global change.

 

[rande]

I knew that but I don't think it gives you the best color.
but thanks

 

[pmgprepress]

I don't know what rip your using, but a quick fix for me is having Rampage convert RGB to CMYK.

 

[mattbeals]

Depending on the version of Publisher you are using, what you use to create the PDF and what you do in Publisher it is possible to get CMYK out of Publisher. However... I have found it most advantageous to NOT output CMYK from Publisher. I would *MUCH* rather have RGB coming from Publisher. Getting spot colors to come out as spot colors is a different story... Regardless, give my RGB from WordPerfect Office, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, etc. any day of the week versus CMYK.

 

[dj]

"It seems that all PDF publisher files come out RGB."

Good at least you got RGB, whenever I handled publisher files, they all came out crap...
Like vector elements that should have been pure black, came out on four colors.

Aaah, aaahhhh, horrible flashbacks ... must exit thread

 

[the_brain]

I for the most part don't use CM but is there away in Acrobat/pitstop to convert
these and have them come out okay? with maybe a few exception.

Rande,

If you're working with version 7.5 of PitStop Professional, you have a number of preferences that you can set in regards to Color Management. Do note that it's not easy to set the settings right. And sometimes it's better NOT to use Color Management by just disabling it.

In the general preferences>Color management you find a dropdown list with available color engines that you can use to perform conversions.
One of them is the Adobe color engine. FYI: if it says 'unavailable', that normal because you have to install this engine separately from PitStop. You find the installer 'for free' on the adobe website.

Once you have set the engine you can set you other color management preferences. Source and target ICC Profiles.
The problem is that you don't have any idea on how the RGB colors were made, so you have to use a general RGB ICC Profile with a large gamut as source (E.g. Adobe RGB (1998), CIE RGB, sRGB,...).
Then you set the target CMYK ICC Profile towards your kind of production and paper. US Sheetfed coated is a general one.

Once this is set you can use an Action List like Convert all to CMYK to automatically convert your PDF files to CMYK.
NOTE: because RGB publisher files probably have RGB or CMYK black text, you need to change this color first before you do the actual color conversion. You can do this with an Action List as well, it looks like this

Select all
Select text segments
Select color (set the RGB or CMYK color)
AND
Change color (Set this to 100% K)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Bert

 

[Hopkins Printing]

It seems that all PDF publisher files come out RGB.
Am I right on that or is there away for them to be saved properly? We don't have it ourselves.
I don't know what version they have yet.
I normally open every photo with pitstop 7 acro 7 and convert, or else they look
bad. I for the most part don't use CM but is there away in Acrobat/pitstop to convert
these and have them come out okay? with maybe a few exception.

thanks
Rande

Hi Rande,

Depending on the version of Publisher they are using, there is an easy way to get CMYK and Pantone colors out of Publisher. Starting with version 2002 or 2003 (I can't remember which but I think it started with 2003), if they pull down the Tools menu and choose Commercial Printing Tools -> Color Printing, they can control not only the "color space" of the entire document but they can also control how each color in the document separates (spot versus process color).

If they have Publisher 2007, they can download an "Export to PDF or XPS" add-on from Microsoft's website that makes it easier to make a PDF from a Publisher file...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...11-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

Does this help?
Jon Morgan
Hopkins Printing

 

[destryer]

I've had several customers use this product and while it's not as "mature" as the big boys to will produce a fairly good CMYK and spot color PDF you can use it does cut up objects weird and uses a HARD UCR on photos. Usually I would advise you to take the file in-house to do the conversion to PDF since the client is using Publisher- how tech-savvy can they be?

 

[mattbeals]

It's just better to take the RGB out of Publisher and fix it later. I always tell people *DO NOT* use the CMYK option in Publisher. Leave it RGB and I'll take care of the rest....

 

[claude72]

To handle Publisher files, I simply bought Windows and Publisher, and I installed them on my Mac (with Sun WMware)... and I also bought the Markzware "PUB2ID" plug-in, that allows to open a Publisher file in InDesign...

... and I always warn the customers that their PDF made with office tools or with free internet downloaded softwares are not reliable for Print, and that I also need their native files (and extra job will be charged): then, depending of the difficulties appearing with the "job", I have the choice between 3 ways to handle it (whole job or each page separately):

- customer's PDF: with PitStop... and Illustrator!!!

- native file in Publisher: it allows me to do the main corrections directly in Publisher, then I output a .PS file on the PC, that I distill on the Mac, getting a reliable PDF, and I finish with PitStop,

- native file in InDesign: the conversion is not exact, and it's necessary to rework the InDesign file... but PUB2ID is able to extract all the pictures from the Publisher file and put them in a folder as separate files with links in InDesign... this allows the user to open all the picture in Photoshop if necessary.

(as the customers often don't give the pictures, it's also possible to use PUB2ID just to get the pictures from the .PUB file, then open them in Photoshop to make the corrections and re-import the modified pictures in Publisher... or in the PDF with PitStop!!!)

It seems that all PDF publisher files come out RGB.

Yes, but no... RGB mode is the default mode of Publisher, but most recent releases of Publisher (sure for the 2007) can work in CMYK...

But here again the problems is between the chair and the keyboard: an user who is enough incompetent to believe that it is possible to "make DTP" with Publisher cannot know how to work correctly in CMYK!!!

And it's better for a printer to have RGB job and pictures, letting him do its own CMYK conversion, with its own parameters, than to get a bad CMYK job, made by an incompetent operator, with CMYK black, an unprintable TAC, all benday colors made with the 4 process, even on 5 pt text, etc.

 

[Hopkins Printing]

Although Matt and I's opinion differ on this, I can only speak for my own experiences...

CMYK/Spot out of Publisher = less time I have to spend fixing the document and color is just as good and it separates properly.

It's actually better to have the customer setup their Publisher files correctly first (which is about a 10 minute conversation and a document download for future reference) so that I can avoid the inevitable question, "What happened to my (RGB) blue? It's more vivid on my screen!" This way they get a clear picture of what they can expect color-wise.

Cheers,
Jon