XMF - Flatten PDF for Digital KM1 inkjet press

[VistaSecured]

In XMF workflow. Can I flatten a pdf? Our KM1 Inkjet Press needs flatten files to print from.
Thank you, Greg

 

[Magnus59]

In XMF workflow. Can I flatten a pdf? Our KM1 Inkjet Press needs flatten files to print from.
Thank you, Greg

Is there an option to export as PDF 1.3?

 

[abc]

I'm pretty sure the KM1 has a reasonably current rip that should handle transparency in-rip.
Why do you think it can't handle transparency?

 

[VistaSecured]

I'm pretty sure the KM1 has a reasonably current rip that should handle transparency in-rip.
Why do you think it can't handle transparency?

All of the technicians say the file needs to be flatten.
Any time there is a problem, first thing they ask.

 

[VistaSecured]

Is there an option to export as PDF 1.3?

I don't see that exact option. I do see "Finished PDF/X Level" Level1 or Level2.

 

[namelessentity]

All of the technicians say the file needs to be flatten.
Any time there is a problem, first thing they ask.

I'd take what your techs say with a grain of salt. They're not operators, they're mechanics. Not to say they're dumb, but they get trained on the mechanical side, but generally know nothing about the operating side. I'd ask a trainer or if they have a color specialist to get in touch with you. There's no reason a machine made in the last 5 years can't support a PDFX4 with transparency.

 

[abc]

If you want to test your rip properly and see what PDF features are working and which need better configuration, download and rip this test suite. Then you will know where your problems are.

Ghent PDF Output Suite

gwg.org

 

[jwheeler]

I'm pretty sure the KM1 has a reasonably current rip that should handle transparency in-rip.
Why do you think it can't handle transparency?

I agree with this. We have KM C6085 and C7090, and they all offer APPE (Adobe PDF Print Engine) in the RIPs. Being that the KM-1 is their top of the line press, I'm sure it has that feature as well. On our RIP's, it's a check box we can toggle on/off. This will automatically handle transparency flattening issues. I haven't used XMF, but this article states "Adobe PDF Print Engine: XMF Workflow is based on Adobe's native PDF rasterizer, which is capable of rapidly processing the most complex PDFs with ease."...so it seems like it uses the same APPE as the KM controller.

If you're having issues with a particular file that both the KM and XMF workflows aren't handling, then you can attempt to manually flatten the PDF and embed fonts using the "Preflight" feature found in Acrobat Pro.

 

[VistaSecured]

Thank you everyone for your quick response and help.

 

[motormount]

- a little bit late i suppose -

konica file specs for KM1 were, and might still be x1a, so vistasecured should flat files before rip.

If not, he may run into problems.

 

[KimR]

for our KM1 we do the following: convert all colours to either cmyk or rgb (when file contains more then one source colour) and then save a postscipt file. re distil, and use that PDF

 

[abc]

Wow!
and Why?

 

[KimR]

Mainly people using transparency, RGB & CMYK can get unexpected results, not to mention Canva.

 

[abc]

What do you use for Preflight?
Going back to Postscript is a bit of a sledgehammer for things that can be resolved in PDF.

 

[KimR]

We mainly just use pitstop actions via apogee prepress. I know it seems a bit old school but postscripting fixes 99% of issues.