Color management in quark

[pressman.in]

Hello,
We are into newspaper production. We are in the first phase of color management implimentation. We import the PDF file to quark do the page assembly and then convert to PDF through Distiller with PDFx1a setting. Then the file goes to CTP and printing. We use ICON profile for photoshop / quark / Distiller. Our problems are,

1. Even tough we apply profile in photoshop (Color setting) for images , sometime few images comes with TAC 300. How to take care of this? What is the exact procedure of doing this?

2. When we import the pdf file in quark for pagination, We have applied same profile in CMYK. Does this only display with this profile or the profile really applies on images? If so , will this quark takes care of the images which comes with 300 TAC value?

3. We use the same profile for PDF conversion in distiller.We use PDFX1a for conversion. After pdf conversion, we can see the setting in output preview .When we preview with TAC 220, we can see the image areas more than 220 TAC also.

What we really want is to convert all images to 220 TAC at one point. SO we dont have to depend on color correction / pagination / pdf conversion which happens at different dept by different people.

Can anyone suggest us a way.

Pressman.

[rich apollo]

You can reduce the TAC in Acrobat. You can set up a Preflight that converts into your chosen colorspace. There are some Acrobat plug-ins that do an even better job. And then there are stand alone products, like Alwan ColorHub, that work on a hot folder basis.

I don't know what version of Quark you're using, but up to version 7 Quark had a very poor color management implementation (in my opinion). You might look at InDesign.

[Mike Strickler]

Hi. Here are some ideas:

1. If you receive individual images be sure that each one is converted in Photoshop to a proper newsprint profile (such as ISO Newsprint or SNAP): Edit: Convert to Profile. Use perceptual rendering intent for newsprint. Newsprint profile automatically readjust the total ink limit to 220-240, depending on the profile. This is

2. Don't try to do color management in Quark--that's not really what it's good at. A page layout program assembles documents--use it for that.

3. Acrobat Pro can convert all the colors in your existing PDF document to any profile you want: Advanced: Convert Colors. Be sure to select "Convert Colors to Output Intent" and your newsprint profile. Also select Preserve Black and Preserve CMYK primaries. This will keep type and drop shadows as black ink only.

3. Set up PDF preflighting, either in Acrobat or in a third-party tool such as Pitstop to catch and correct errors.

Good luck,

Mike

[muminn]

Try not to use qxpress. Ever.

Hi. Here are some ideas:

1. If you receive individual images be sure that each one is converted in Photoshop to a proper newsprint profile (such as ISO Newsprint or SNAP): Edit: Convert to Profile. Use perceptual rendering intent for newsprint. Newsprint profile automatically readjust the total ink limit to 220-240, depending on the profile. This is

2. Don't try to do color management in Quark--that's not really what it's good at. A page layout program assembles documents--use it for that.

3. Acrobat Pro can convert all the colors in your existing PDF document to any profile you want: Advanced: Convert Colors. Be sure to select "Convert Colors to Output Intent" and your newsprint profile. Also select Preserve Black and Preserve CMYK primaries. This will keep type and drop shadows as black ink only.

3. Set up PDF preflighting, either in Acrobat or in a third-party tool such as Pitstop to catch and correct errors.

Good luck,

Mike

[roxannelee]

Total area coverage is a difficult area for newsprint printing. We use the Adobe Acrobat Pro plugin mentioned by other too to correct total ink cover (aka total area coverage or total ink limit) in any PDF. It is costly but is a great solution.