WORD to PDF

[nickyg]

Dear Forum,

Does anybody know of a good method to get a 4 colour PDF (PDF/X-1a) with single color black text from WORD.

Or is there a third-party plug-in for Word / Acrobat Pro that will do this job ?

Many Thanks,

Nick.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

I usually clean the PDF with colour converter

I usually clean the PDF with colour converter

Acrobat Pro has a colour converter that does a good job of changing colours, keep black pure being one option, otherwise you need pitstop or similar to fix it.

 

[leonardr]

Does anybody know of a good method to get a 4 colour PDF (PDF/X-1a) with single color black text from WORD.

Or is there a third-party plug-in for Word / Acrobat Pro that will do this job ?.

When you create PDFs from Word using the "Create Adobe PDF" button that Acrobat installs there (assuming Word for Windows), you can create PDF/X-1a documents directly - just set you preferences to use the PDF/X-1a choice.

On the Mac, you can do the same thing by printing to the Adobe PDF Printer (<10.6) or using the Adobe PDF Workflow (10.6+).

Leonard

 

[nickyg]

Acrobat Pro has a colour converter that does a good job of changing colours, keep black pure being one option, otherwise you need pitstop or similar to fix it.

Lukas, Thanks for the reply, but we need a sustainable method without too much post creation editing, of course we can automate and batch process...

 

[mattbeals]

Callas pdfToolbox has a specific setting for converting Office files to CMYK. Like Lukas said, Acrobat also has an option to convert blacks. However Callas has added other functionality in its conversion method.

 

[nickyg]

When you create PDFs from Word using the "Create Adobe PDF" button that Acrobat installs there (assuming Word for Windows), you can create PDF/X-1a documents directly - just set you preferences to use the PDF/X-1a choice.

On the Mac, you can do the same thing by printing to the Adobe PDF Printer (<10.6) or using the Adobe PDF Workflow (10.6+).

Leonard

Thanks for the reply Leonard (really enjoyed the Pearson presentation you hosted recently)

Let me get this correct, the "Create Adobe PDF" from within Word will handle RGB (0, 0, 0 black) to CMYK (100% Black) correctly for all text ? The same applies to the Adobe PDF Printer option for 10.5.8 ?

How does this happen ?

Thanks,

 

[nickyg]

Callas pdfToolbox has a specific setting for converting Office files to CMYK. Like Lukas said, Acrobat also has an option to convert blacks. However Callas has added other functionality in its conversion method.

Thanks Matt, lets be specific, convert blacks or black text in a document ?

 

[leonardr]

Let me get this correct, the "Create Adobe PDF" from within Word will handle RGB (0, 0, 0 black) to CMYK (100% Black) correctly for all text ? The same applies to the Adobe PDF Printer option for 10.5.8 ?

How does this happen ?

Like all good software, it happens by Magic, of course .

I didn't say that it would convert the black text to 100% black in all cases - that wasn't what was asked in the original post. Just that it was converted to CMYK automatically. HOWEVER...

With Office 2007 and Acrobat (8.1 and later) on Windows, you will get 100% black text! (it actually shows up in the PDF as DeviceGray - but that's technically equivalent to [0 0 0 K] and takes up less space in the PDF)

On the Mac, with 10.6 and the new workflow option, you will see the same (DeviceGray) result. With 10.5, and the old PDF Printer, however, it will be "rich black".

Leonard

 

[Glenn McDowall]

do you have a link to any additional information about the "new workflow option"?

 

[Al Ferrari]

Like all good software, it happens by Magic, of course .

I didn't say that it would convert the black text to 100% black in all cases - that wasn't what was asked in the original post. Just that it was converted to CMYK automatically. HOWEVER...

Leonard

Here is what the original post said:

"Does anybody know of a good method to get a 4 colour PDF (PDF/X-1a) with single color black text from WORD."
To me that says the OP wants a method to "convert the black text to 100% black in all cases". No?

Al

 

[mattbeals]

Yes, callas pdfToolbox will do this. It runs as a plug-in for Acrobat, a stand alone application, hot folder, command line application or as an SDK. The latter two can be built into your website as many of our Callas customers have done.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

I would encourage all of your PC based Word 2007 clients to install and use the following:

Download details: 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

It has saved us many headaches!


Stephen Marsh

 

[leonardr]

do you have a link to any additional information about the "new workflow option"?

Sure - it's part of the Acrobat 9.1 update documentation since it comes (came) as part of that update.

 

[leonardr]

I would encourage all of your PC based Word 2007 clients to install and use the following:

Download details: 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

While this plugin does produce good quality PDF files, they are NOT PDF/X compliant nor do they do "single color black" - so if you are going to print them, be aware.

 

[Glenn McDowall]

Sure - it's part of the Acrobat 9.1 update documentation since it comes (came) as part of that update.

Any chance of a link from here, I'm having a dense day, and can't find it after an hour of searching.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

leonardr wrote:


> While this plugin does produce good quality PDF files,

Agreed - surprisingly so for a MS product!


> they are NOT PDF/X compliant

Agreed - they do have an ISO PDF/A option, which has pros/cons


> nor do they do "single color black" - so if
> you are going to print them, be aware.

Not so fast! Composite or pre-separated workflow? This is where things
are strange...(who-da-thunk-it for MS!)

In Acrobat output preview, the black 0r0g0b text will be listed under
"gray" and "device gray" and not as an RGB element (while say red text
created as 255r0g0b will still map to RGB). When printing separations
from Acrobat Pro 9, this black text will separate as a solid black
separation with no CMY underlying the black! The previously mentioned
out of gamut 255r text will map to solid magenta and solid yellow in the
default CMYK separations produced by Acroabt.

This is for the "standard" PDF produced by the "save as PDF or XPS"
add-on for Office 2007.

So what happens when using the ISO PDF/A option?

Exactly the same thing when seps are produced by Acrobat Pro! However,
the output preview panel will indicate the this is an RGB file in the
"process plates" field (which makes sense) - while the "standard" PDF
will display as being CMYK in the output preview process plates field.
This does not make sense at face value as the file is not CMYK, however
as Acrobat Pro apparently knows how to separate this correctly, I guess
it does make sense that the file will produce CMYK separations from the
RGB source.

So what happens when such a PDF is placed in InDesign and separations
are printed from InDesign? Slightly different seps are created, however
the black text still maps to solid 100% black.

So what happens when the PDF is placed in InDesign and a composite PDF
is exported? The same as before, when the seps are created by Acrobat
Pro! Solid black text.

This may very well be RIP dependent and it is never good to trust a PDF
at face value.


Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh

 

[mattbeals]

I keep telling people... callas pdfToolbox can find and fix the RGB black and grays in vector objects and images and convert them to black. I think it is best to leave everything in Publisher as RGB and not let Publisher convert to CMYK. The separations I have seen and experienced are horrible. Once you use the Office conversion mode it's a snap to go ahead and convert to a PDF/X file.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

The test mentioned above was from MS Word (RGB only) - not MS Publisher.

I presume that Adobe have designed Acrobat Pro to work "cleanly" with MS Word files, so that it is possible to create separations that are "cleaner" than one would expect.


Stephen Marsh

 

[mattbeals]

Same difference, it's a GDI based product. Works great on RGB files regardless where they come from.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

So, if these PDF files from word show that the 0r0g0b elements will map to 100%K in Acrobat Pro produced separations...why is there a need to use another product like Callas (or will other RIP's produce seps that do not map to 100% black like Acrobat Pro does?).

Stephen Marsh