Xerox RIP - B&W as colour clicks

[dipar]

When printing a file that (on screen) appears to be black and white, colour clicks are charged. This is caused by the PDF having black rendered as equal value CMY.

Does anybody have a work-around that can correct the original file in a batch environment? We have a job with thousands of PDFs which needs to be printed on a colour printer. We don't have the time (or inclination) to open each file and make changes. The Xerox Free Flow RIP allows colour to be switched on and off per page, however that still impacts heavily on print times. There are aspects of these files that MUST be printed in colour so across the board conversion to grey-scale is not appropriate.

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated. Xerox can't seem to help.

 

[leetaylor]

Pitstop is your friend here!

 

[mattbeals]

While PitStop is a good friend it fails to detect RGB gray images and convert them to gray. So you should look to Callas pdfToolbox 4.3 to find and fix those issues. It will be more efficient overall, having done this for years, to use pdfToolbox to convert "gray" objects to gray whether they be vector or raster. And since you're printing color on some of the pages pdfToolbox will do a superior job of converting to CMYK. Especially if you are using the Quick Convert mode.

http://www.mattbeals.com/videos/callas/OfficeRGBConversion/index.html
http://www.mattbeals.com/videos/callas/OfficeSampleColorConversions/index.html

I still love PitStop, it's an invaluable resource. But pdfToolbox from Callas simply does some things better. The pdfToolbox and PitStop Pro are very complimentary tools for each other. Think beyond basic preflighting and you can see how well they compliment each other.

 

[leetaylor]

While PitStop is a good friend it fails to detect RGB gray images and convert them to gray. So you should look to Callas pdfToolbox 4.3 to find and fix those issues. It will be more efficient overall, having done this for years, to use pdfToolbox to convert "gray" objects to gray whether they be vector or raster. And since you're printing color on some of the pages pdfToolbox will do a superior job of converting to CMYK. Especially if you are using the Quick Convert mode.

Sounds good!

 

[MGB_LE]

Leetaylor, would you describe how you'd use Pitstop in this instance? I don't own pdf Toolbox, so I'm interested in how Pitstop is my friend in fixing this issue.

 

[PDFSolver]

XML Job Ticket

XML Job Ticket

Hello,

If digital front end is Xerox DocuSP 5.1 or Xerox Freeflow Print Server,
than you can send XML job ticket in front of PDF with following command

<color-effects-type syntax="keyword">monochrome-grayscale</color-effects-type>

and it will print all color PDF jobs as grayscale.

Pradip Shah
www.B2BeDocuments.com
215-542-8383

 

[leetaylor]

Leetaylor, would you describe how you'd use Pitstop in this instance? I don't own pdf Toolbox, so I'm interested in how Pitstop is my friend in fixing this issue.

Hi.

I would say a Global Colour Change to make all the RGB Black text 100K.

Also the same principle to convert "grey RGB" images to true Greyscale

Unless I have misunderstood you?

Lee.

 

[MGB_LE]

I should mention we are also having this problem with our iGEN Creo RIP, and Xerox's answers haven't been clear on how to resolve it. The Creo has an option to "print grays using black toner" but I'll be darned if we've been able to get it working correctly. To me it's a cost issue since black clicks are much cheaper than color! What feedback can you guys give me on this?

 

[mattbeals]

I should mention we are also having this problem with our iGEN Creo RIP, and Xerox's answers haven't been clear on how to resolve it. The Creo has an option to "print grays using black toner" but I'll be darned if we've been able to get it working correctly. To me it's a cost issue since black clicks are much cheaper than color! What feedback can you guys give me on this?

Using pdfToolbox it is easy to convert the job, specifically RGB blacks/grays, three color grays, four color blacks and spot blacks to k only.

Send me one of your PDF's and I'll take a look at it. This should be a non-issue for the Creo unit. Give me a call and we can talk about it. This seems to be a huge issue with digital printing for some reason. This should not be a problem at all...

 

[dipar]

Hi Matt,

REALLY appreciate your help here! I had downloaded trials of PDF Correct, ARTS Crackerjack and Enfocus Pittstop Server. The only one I have had success with was the Pittstop Server, however I must confess I couldn't work out where to start with the other two. Pittstop seemed more intuitive I guess. The price is a bit of a sticking point though.

Trouble is we have over 2000 files for this one job. All PDFs have been created by different people and different applications. There are photos, branding and charts that must retain colour. We have a tight deadline for printing the documents so that is why I was wanting something that would work in a batch situation - maybe with hotfolders as Pittstop Server does. If we had to open every file and manually correct, we'd never get the job out.

I think we need to address CMYK blacks and greys, as well as RGB blacks and greay. Does PDF Correct address these problems in a batch situation? If so, is there a tutorial available on this?

Thanks again

 

[mattbeals]

Absolutely pdfToolbox Server 4 can do this. One specific difference between PitStop Server and Callas pdfToolbox is that PitStop Pro, Server and Extreme cannot detect RGB gray images and convert them to true gray. There are a few other things that are different and much better with pdfToolbox. Where are you located? I can probably set up a quick demo to show you what's going on. Email me off line with a file or two and I'll process them right now.