InDesign PDF export - Colour settings??

wicky

wicky

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I am trying to export a 2 colour pdf via InDesign CS, but I am unsure what the settings should be.

It's a simple letterhead with the text as a Pantone spot colour, and a duotone background image. Nothing too fancy. Obviously, I am working in CMYK, but when I export it seems to be exporting the CMYK + the 2 specials.

Do I have to use the ink manager and set each CMYK channel to transparent, or is this automatic. Can anyone help me out with this?

Many thanks
 
You need to ask whomever's printing the document what they require. But many printers use the PDF-X1a standard because of the way it handles color and raster and vector images as well.

Sounds like you have 2 Pantone colors, not one. You might want to "Preflight" your layout from InDesign first and see if you have any extra Pantones in there you don't want. As it is, CMYK printing + 1 Pantone sounds a little bit excessive unless it's a corporate client who absolutely has to have their corporate color print correctly.

Why would you set CMYK to transparent? If you have CMYK in your doc, that's what's going to print, and the printer will have to use their 5 or 6 color press for your job. More $$$, obviously.

To export 2 colors, you can export just those colors, but the easiest way to do that is to first DESIGN it that way. Only include the two colors you want in your design. If you start taking colors out, when more exist in your doc, you are going to have color issues; like having them not print correctly, for example.

Are you printing duotone? Then set any raster images in duotone and use the pantone as the color, black as the other color. Then your text can only be that pantone or black when you go to set up your layout/InDesign file. Viola—2 color printing.

Hope this helps!
 
Kind of. I think that maybe I've confused the matter slightly...

The question is this: How do I create a 2 color job in ID and export it via PDF without any other colour channels?

I'm getting confused by the ink manager... When I export the job and look in the ink manager (advanced PDF settings) there are the standard CMYK plus the 2 colours I have actually used on the job. The CMYK channels are surplus to the job in question. So, shouldn't the ink manager JUST show the two colours that I have actually used (rather than 6 colours)? Or does it always show the CMYK channels, regardless of the fact that there are no process colours being used?

As far as the design is concerned, the colour palette in InDesign only has Black, White, Registration and the 2 colours used on the job.

I think what I'm asking is for somebody to explain what the hell the ink manager does, 'cause it's confusing me. If it isn't there to view which colours are being used on a particular job, what is its function?

I used to just package the ID project, but the printer I'm using for this job is a bit old and rubbish. It made me realise that (weirdly) I have never been required to send a 2 colour PDF to print.

Thanks very much for your reply BTW.

Cheers
 
Well, first of all: Which two colors do you want to print? That will help me better answer your question. If you design your file, with correct images placed in InDesign and the correct colors used in InDesign, then you won't have to play with the color channels at all.

I honestly don't know how to force InDesign to give separations for only two colors of the document. Most of the color options in the layout program have to do with setting ANGLES of CMYK spread in printing to elimate moiré patterns; not selecting which colors to print unless you are creating PDFs as separations. Then you can make a pdf of each color individually.

The best way I know to do it is to have whatever you import to InDesign have the specs you want. But I don't know what colors you want to use so I can't effectively answer your question. Let me know what those are and we can take it from there.
 
wicky said:
I am trying to export a 2 colour pdf via InDesign CS, but I am unsure what the settings should be.
Click to expand...

Here is your answer.

While unclear, to export spot colour PDF files from InDesign, change the colour settings pull down to 'Leave Unchanged' in the Advanced menu of the Export settings. (see attached screenshot).

This stumped me too for a while. Your PDF will export just fine with the Press Settings. The more advanced PDF setting are for Process colour plus 1 or more spot colour jobs, which you're obviously not doing.
 

Attachments

The Pan No's are 4695C and 4745C.

The work in question (a letterhead) consists of a table drawn out in Illustrator, and imported into InDesign where some text has been added. There is a background image which is a full bleed photo (forget the original Duotone for the time being, I'm now working with a simple greyscale image). In between the photo and the illustrator content, there is a layer with a white rectangle set to 50% opacity (this is where the person will write on the letterhead, with the photo knocked back in the background).

The only colours used in ID are 4695C and 4745C (I have checked this repeatedly).

The table was originally designed with a process brown colour in Illustrator, however the client has since specified the spot colour 4695C. So, I have made the changes and checked the file in Illustrator. All the lines are 100% 4695C, and the fills are a tint, 15% 4695C. These are the only colours used.

When exporting from ID to PDF I have been looking at the ink manager, and this has been showing 6 colour channels: c, m, y, k + 4695C and 4745C. This is confirmed in the preflight.

OK. I've solved the problem, **I think**. I had to redraw the grid in Illustrator (for some reason it retained the process colour info, even though i have definitely changed it all to the spot colour!!).

The preflight now only shows 2 colours, however the ink manager still shows 6 (cmyk + the 2 spots). Is this correct?

2nd question.....

Can somebody clarify something else for me? If I send a single colour job to print with a mono background image, everything will be printed as the choosen single colour, right? But with a 2 colour job, how do I specify which colour will be used for the monotone (photo) background image.... Do I have to assign the colour as multichannel in photoshop before placing into ID, or can I do this directly in ID?

Thanks for your patience :confused:
 
Can somebody clarify something else for me? If I send a single colour job to print with a mono background image, everything will be printed as the choosen single colour, right? But with a 2 colour job, how do I specify which colour will be used for the monotone (photo) background image.... Do I have to assign the colour as multichannel in photoshop before placing into ID, or can I do this directly in ID?

--[If you output each color layer as a separation, you can tell your printer to print them whatever color you want. The problem comes when you understand that gray is going to turn into a percentage of the color you want to print (a screen of that color), rather than 100% of that color.

I would specify in your photoshop file what duotone you want it to be and set it that way in the file using "Duotone" color space. You used to be able to select a grayscale image in a program like Quark and add a color to it that way, but I think it's better to set a raster image's color in Photoshop and a vector image's color in Illustrator. Then you don't have to worry about what colors the InDesign contains, or having to choose pantone colors in InDesign.

This is how I do things anyway… :) ]--
 
I would also check your illustrator file for other colors. Choose "Select All Unused Colors" from the swatches triangle button menu and delete all unused colors (hit the trash can in the menu with the colors selected).

You could have some objects in your illustrator file that contain colors you don't want. Also, you have to not only change the color in the palette but replace the old non-pantone colors in the objects with the colors you know to be pantone.
 
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