View Separations without Adobe Professional

[herbert]

Hi There

Can anyone advise on any software that will enable me to view separations on a PDF. We have 7 Account Managers and want all account managers to be viewing pdf files, so they understand what the are producing. I know Acrobat professional does it, but i dont want to pay for the full program just to view separations / overprint...why cant this option be in acrobat Reader !!!..I wonder why !!!

Any help would be great

Thanks

Dan

 

[leonardr]

Can anyone advise on any software that will enable me to view separations on a PDF. We have 7 Account Managers and want all account managers to be viewing pdf files, so they understand what the are producing. I know Acrobat professional does it, but i dont want to pay for the full program just to view separations / overprint...why cant this option be in acrobat Reader !!!..I wonder why !!!

Why do you need to actually view separations in 2012 (almost 2013)? You aren't still printing separated, are you?

Overprinting, sure. Adobe Reader 9 and later do that automatically (and for free) on PDFs targeted for print.

 

[emorales]

Hello Dan,
sounds like wasted time but you can place/open your pdf file in Indesign CS5 or 6 and select separation preview from Window/Output menu. Cheaper means working hard.

Acro Reader was designed just for sharing info across platforms where Acrobat can work. Acro Pro is backed with tools that makes you some money.

Most of our production files are signed OK by e-mail by our clients so we preflight and fix our pdf files using Pitstop pro, removing overprints that causes tricky effects that Acro Reader can't display.

Our customers demand info integrity more than color precision.

Hope this help

 

[herbert]

Hello

Let me explain further..many Years ago before PDF's, New Jobs where supplied with a iris/chromalin from a repro house, with overlays for finishes etc. I think with PDF's has changed alot of things for print in a good way. but I feel the initial brief on the job has been lost, as PDF come straight into PrePress and misses out the account managers (and salesman to a point). The account manager cant view the PDF with separation, unless they have acrobat Pro...I actually think because they (account managers / salesman) dont see the PDF, they actually dont take ownership of the job aswell

Why is this important to us..

Our speciality is special finishes on high end products, that need a great deal of thought to manufacture the product, ie foil, emboss, vanishes, special colour...if we printed 4col brochures, i would just use reader for account managers, then use our Prepress system to sort this rest out.

We dont need all the functions of acrobat pro, just want to see separations (+ Overprints)...I also think if we could have a view of pdf's on the shopfloor for the managers..this also could be a benefit, maybe as a QC check for checking no finishes have been missed...its just about sharing information.....

Another example....we have a library of foil dies, all jobs are sent to this die library team via email as PDF, they then look at the job and restore all existing foil dies for our library, ready for for the production process...but currently they cant view all the separations with out pro...

leonardr - No we dont use pre-separated files...

Is their something else I can use, or is there a acrobat reader lite, or a plug in for acrobat reader

Little things can make a difference, and this is one of them..


Regards

Dan

 

[Stephen Marsh]

An older topic thread that is related to this current topic:

http://printplanet.com/forums/adobe/23665-control-separations-when-making-pdf/

Dan, if your company uses Kodak Prinergy workflow and Kodak InSite Prepress Portal or Kodak InSite Creative Workflow software, then with the SmartReview software anybody in the approval chain can view separations without needing Acrobat. Other Workflow systems, RIPs or softproof software may also offer alternatives (although they would not be cheaper than Acrobat Pro).

If you need to do this on a budget, you could purchase a single license for Acrobat Pro and install this on a networked PC. Multiple users could then use remote desktop connections to drive the PC and inspect the PDF files. The drawback is that only one user at a time can use the installation.


Stephen Marsh

 

[ajr]

It would be great to do this, as when we have jobs in the rep could check how many colours, spot colours etc, would be great to have the crop tool aswell so they can check the size properly.

 

[web2printsolution]

We can do this for you. Please contact us

 

[beeeehhh]

We can do this for you. Please contact us

Callas pdfToolbox from Callas software is also a stand alone product which is powerful and very customer oriented in term of design.
And the functionality are very impressive, the separation view included.

Don't forget that they are under the hood for the PDF technology for Adobe!

Cheers

 

[Paul Santer]

Hi Dan

Do you have a RIP or Workflow that can create composite and separated TIFF files?

 

[web2printsolution]

our system can create composite and/or separated TIFF/EPS/PDF.
the question is - does the origin file have named/cmyk/rgb colors?

 

[Greg_Firestone]

How bout generating a composite PDF/X-1a for viewing content/overprints and then a separated PDF for viewing the seps? It's an extra file to deal with but if you want to avoid spending $$$, its' an option.

Greg

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Why do you need to actually view separations in 2012 (almost 2013)? You aren't still printing separated, are you?

Leonard, why does Acrobat Pro have the ability to view separations in 2012 (almost 2013)? Would Adobe remove the feature from the next version of Acrobat Pro? (tongue firmly planted in cheek)

This is a perfectly valid requirement for users who deal with spots on a regular basis (packaging, embellishing users), however it may not be valid for Acrobat Reader.

Even though one can run preflight reports to see if a PDF contains spot colours, a knowledgeable human may need to see how the spot is built and how it interacts with other elements/colours in the file.


Stephen Marsh

 

[Chief_1975]

How bout generating a composite PDF/X-1a for viewing content/overprints and then a separated PDF for viewing the seps? It's an extra file to deal with but if you want to avoid spending $$$, its' an option.

Greg

I would suggest this as well as a budget option, we do exactly this for some of our customers where all colour work is in one PDF and then a 2nd PDF with page as pos/neg separationfor each 'decorative layer' or if backing white is being printed.

There are a number of software vendors who offer web browser based tools where you can view separations i.e. Kodak, Esko etc however your talking big money.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Since PDf workflow allows us just to use one file format, I don't see how Acrobat Pro can be a "too expensive" option… what is the cost of not having it? Next you'll be wanting to save on drinking coffee with no mugs?

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Lukas, I agree in principle. Printing companies may invest in a new digital printer or piece of finishing equipment, however they may not see the same "value" in software as it is less tangible. That being said, it can be very hard for many printing companies to invest in software or hardware these days. It does not matter if it is a basic tool that allows them to do business or something that makes them more competitive in the market or if it saves them money with productivity enhancements etc.

For the OP it is about purchasing 7 licenses for the account reps, in addition to however many are needed for production operators. Presumably the only thing that these 7 users are doing in Acrobat Pro that they are not doing in Reader is viewing separations.

As I suggested earlier, the seven users can "screen share" a remote computer that does have a license for Acrobat Pro. A single workstation could be setup for use by the account reps and it could also be used for generating preflight reports and for other shared tasks. If every one of the 7 account reps needs a local copy on their machine instead of remote access to one licensed machine - then as earlier suggested in the topic thread, Callas PDF Toolbox can be run in stand alone mode without being plugged into Acrobat Pro, which is probably the cheapest option. Another option suggested in the thread is to create a second file with separations.


Stephen Marsh

 

[leonardr]

Leonard, why does Acrobat Pro have the ability to view separations in 2012 (almost 2013)? Would Adobe remove the feature from the next version of Acrobat Pro? (tongue firmly planted in cheek)

Stephen - because it's been there forever (well since Acrobat 5)...No, we don't (usually) remove features from our products. And in this case, in fact, we actually ADDED some new capabilities to the Separations viewers in Acrobat such as the ability to capture/save the values into an annotation!

This is a perfectly valid requirement for users who deal with spots on a regular basis (packaging, embellishing users), however it may not be valid for Acrobat Reader.

Spots, yes. I don't usually think about those when I think about "separations"....

 

[WharfRat]

We use seps preview on nearly every job we process.
As a last step we turn off the Black and scan through the job to be assured there is no rogue "Built" Black in the job.
We, quite often get jobs with RGB Blacks or Profile mis-matched Blacks
that must be changed to 100% Black for printing.

MSD

 

[Visualaid]

Hi There

Can anyone advise on any software that will enable me to view separations on a PDF. We have 7 Account Managers and want all account managers to be viewing pdf files, so they understand what the are producing. I know Acrobat professional does it, but i dont want to pay for the full program just to view separations / overprint...why cant this option be in acrobat Reader !!!..I wonder why !!!

Any help would be great

Thanks

Dan

Just buy Pitstop Pro, problem solved. Pitstop is an Acrobat plugin that is worth having for many reasons. You can also edit pdfs with Pitstop.

 

[DCurry]

Just buy Pitstop Pro, problem solved. Pitstop is an Acrobat plugin that is worth having for many reasons. You can also edit pdfs with Pitstop.

How would that solve the problem? You'd still need Acrobat Professional to install Pitstop (unless it works with Reader, but I am not aware that it does.) Even if it did work with Reader, there isn't a Separations Preview in Pitstop (unless it's in the very newest version, which I don't have yet.)

 

[Visualaid]

How would that solve the problem? You'd still need Acrobat Professional to install Pitstop (unless it works with Reader, but I am not aware that it does.) Even if it did work with Reader, there isn't a Separations Preview in Pitstop (unless it's in the very newest version, which I don't have yet.)

sorry i probably misread. acrobat pro lets you view separations.
why not just get acrobat pro?