Bear with me, as I setup for my question!
Been trying to put together a small catalog, which is to become a PDF file. Most of the graphics are photos imported into Xara, then ‘faded’ into the sea green color I want for the page backgrounds. One page has a table created in Excel. I’m assembling the catalog in PageMaker v7.1 with Kodak color management turned on, so I can (hopefully) make sure colors visible in publication look the same once it goes to PDF.
First problem was getting the whole table to show up in PageMaker. Adobe’s Forums state in their FAQ that you shouldn’t try using OLE to connect to the spreadsheet as odd things happen. Tried that, and found out they were right.
They had several suggestions on their site to try. I picked out the 2 most promising, that didn’t require me to have to recreate the table in Adobe Table.
Idea #1) Output direct to PDF, and then import into PageMaker. No good – Excel can’t stop adding page margins.
Idea #2) Copy to clipboard, paste as metafile into Illustrator, output as EPS file, import into PageMaker. No good – couldn’t get PageMaker to accept ANY type of EPS that XARA can create.
So, I thought up my own idea. Got the whole chart showing on screen in Excel, made a screen capture, then saved results to PNG file. (It isn’t a very BIG price list!) Imported that into Xara. Brought it in against background I wanted for that page, and got it imported into PageMaker. (Whew!)
Finished up the rest of the material for the catalog, and then created the PDF. HORRORS! Everything looked either washed out, or too bright. I’ve been chasing my tail for a couple of hours just to try to get the font colors to be what I want them to be when the PDF is created. I’m going to try turning off color management in PageMaker to see if I can get things to look the right way. (Crossing fingers.)
I know Xara doesn’t have color management built in, but I have it turned on in XP itself for my monitor. So, what I see in Xara should be how things look once imported into PageMaker. But, PageMaker insists on using only ‘recognized’ forms of color management. So, maybe I’m needlessly beating my head against the wall with having color management in PageMaker turned on for this project.
Has any one got any ideas as to how I can simplify this process, or work around these problems? Comments would be greatly appreciated!
I'm attaching copy of the ugly PDF, in case anyone wants to see what I'm talking about...
[] My mother is a travel agent for guilt trips.
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Irene M. Kraus a.k.a. The Computer Lady!
Graphic & Web Page Design www.design-comp.com
President/Newsletter Editor/Webmaster - CEBUG www.cebug.org
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