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RGB to CMYK while keeping text black only.

Augie
Registered: Sep 20 2010
Posts: 7

We routinely receive PDFs that are RGB, but need to be converted to CMYK for printing.
 
Can this be done with a 'Fixup'?
 
I am trying to have 2 'Convert Colors' in a single Fixup.
One can be for images & the other for text & lines.
 
Or is there a device-link profile "out there" we can import in Acrobat?
We do not have the app to make a devise-link profile & not even sure it can be used in Acrobat.
 
Or is there another way that I am not thinking about?
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Augie

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 10.1, Macintosh
Dov Isaacs
Expert
Registered: Nov 21 2005
Posts: 50
Augie,

Unfortunately you have not given us much information as to how you are actually printing the “RGB” PDF file, but a few thoughts:

(1) Acrobat does not support device link profiles (although Adobe's underlying color management software does provide such support, it is not exposed in any Adobe product except our Adobe PDF Print Engine technology licensed for RIPs).

(2) If you are indeed printing to a PostScript device which are in reality always grayscale, CMYK, or CMYK+spot devices, Acrobat's printing capability when used with the default “Acrobat Color Management” feature in the Advanced printing options always converts all RGB colors to CMYK using any embedded ICC profiles or the default RGB profile if an object doesn't reference an embedded profile. There are also options (“on” by default for PostScript printing if your PDF file is not a PDF/X file) to force all R=G=B content to CMYK=(0,0,0,K) and to maintain the purity of pure black and primaries when going from CMYK to C'M'Y'K'.

(3) If you are not printing from Acrobat itself, but rather submitting to a direct PDF RIP (not one that converts to PostScript first) such as one using the Adobe PDF Print Engine technology, ICC color management takes care of RGB to CMYK conversion automatically and if the RIP vendor provides for it, via device link profiles. There is also usually direct support for R=G=B conversions as in (2) above.

(4) Color conversions can be handled by the “Convert Colors” feature of the “Print Production” tools. These cannot be automated via the “Action Wizard” but I believe you can produce an action or a combination of actions to convert colors using the “Preflight” facility.

- Dov



Dov Isaacs is a Principal Scientist at Adobe Systems Incorporated specializing in PDF publishing workflow, PDF print standards, prepress, and printing. He is also chair of the ISO TC130 WG2/TF2 group responsible for PDF/X standards.

Augie
Registered: Sep 20 2010
Posts: 7
Thanks Dov for the reply.

We are not printing the PDF files, these are converted to EPS' to be used in a pagination system that only accepts CMYK files. Actually RGB files can be imported to the system, but a hard error excludes them from being output.
We currently use a preflight application that converts these RGB files into CMYK, at the expense of having 4-color text. Our 'manual' preflighters interrogate every color PDF and we get back to the client to resubmit a proper CMYK file.
On the rare occasion were this cannot be done we have a VERY old Scitex Brisque that will (hopefully) create proper CT/LW files so we can easily change the type to single color black.
The other option is to open the file in Illustrator or PS.

Thanks,
Augie