enfocus pdf colour mismatch

[karl whelan]

I am having a problem with a colour mismatch printing from either Quark or Indesign. The problem arises when I print a pdf with any kind of transparency on a colour background. For example if the background is 15 yellow and 3 black, where the picture or text box containing the item that has the shadow overlaps the background the colour weights change when I create a pdf and where the background stays cmyk the colour behind the text/picture box becomes indexed cmyk and the values in this area have become 14.9 yellow and 3.14 black.
This doesn't seem like much but when the file goes through an Alwan workflow it makes the colour difference even more pronounced. An if I print to a HP plotter it is very evident.
I have attached a simplified pdf of the problem to this post but you will need pitstop enfocus to see the problem because it won't show on acrobat output preview.

[PrintIT]

Are you printing postscript and distilling?
You should export directly out of InDesign to preserve transparency - See attached file that I just created by exporting.

[karl whelan]

thanks, but it needs to be flattened, to go through the alwan workflow or any rip

[PrintIT]

Ahhh - Sorry. We're a RamPage shop, which can take a PDF with transparency. Haven't had to fight transparency for a while.

I just tried flattening a couple different ways and I'm getting the same result.

Sorry~

[mattbeals]

You can't send a PDF with transparency through Alwan? You want to manage the color before putting it through Alwan. The color being indexed is correct. Sounds like the HP isn't liking the indexed CMYK color space for some reason. Which version of Alwan do you have?

Try a copy of Callas pdfToolbox to convert colors and then flatten. You can use your Alwan device links in pdfToolbox.