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It's time for the old CMYK talk again. Did the obvious search but can find what I'm looking for.
Sent something to the printers. But the complained that the text was 'rich black' i.e. not black but made from all colours.
Followed the advice of exporting in pdf/x. But they said that did not work.
Reading the post it seems XXPro is not fully CMYK complient - is this one thing wew fall down on?
Turan
Long time, Turan
Actually, I would consider a black that contains some CMY to be rich black.
I just tried exporting two black squares, one solid black and one 100% K and 25% CMY and both show up in Acrobat > Advanced > Print production > Output Preview as containing CMYK.
The square with 25% CMY appears to contain 25% of these 3 colors and 100% K.
I opened the PDF in Illustrator CS4 and the black is indeed 100K 25% CMY.
I am using Xtreme Pro 5.1.2 and I exported as PDF/X3 2003
Hi Gary,
Thanks for remembering me - life is busy - I still read the post from time to time, but don't get a chance to comment these days.
I'm glade you did that simple test - my document has some transparencies behind some of the text and - as per the other posts - it does indicate problems rendering CMYK if transparency is involved. But thought it unlikely as it was behind the text.
could it be because of the anti-aliasing of the text?
Turan
Turan,
I suggest that you use pure 100% k for text without CMY.
Text should be set to "overprinting", (right click imagesetting)
Do not forget to put text above pictures not behind (even for transparent ones), if you want to avoid finding text converted to a bitmap.
See attached example and the pdf output (PDFx1/a).
If you can check the pdf file you will verify it is pure black covering the picture behind, leaving no "holes" in it
You've missed something that I can't see :-(
If I export your file as pdf - I get pure black text :-)
If I export my file having ticked "Always Overprint Black" and ticked "Print all text as shapes" (you had it ticked) - text is 4 colour :-(
I even cut and past just one para into a new doc (incase my images were interfereing) and it still outputs as 4 colour.
Can't see any other setting that you've made that is non default (oh apart from Commercial printing in the pdf export).
What is the last magic step?
Turan
Turan,
the first important step is to choose a CMYK color for your text (exactly 100%K 0%C,M,Y).
Look at the color bar (bottom) in my file, you will find a full set of CMYK colors ( and gray as percentage of black), not the usual ones provided by Xara; select all your text and click on black.
You can check with the eyedropper that it is full black.
I was surprised that even in newsletter templates provided with the software Xara used RGB black for text.
You're a star. I was going mad on this one - I could copy your text and CTRL-A on to mine and it would work - that explained it!
And appologies, your first line told me what to do, but I did not understand what that meant.
Thanks very much - the newspaper print deadline was 3pm uk time, so I missed it, but they took the mixed image and I know for next time.
Turan
Good point Luciano.
I did a further test.
One square was black from the screen palette and one square was CMY 0% K 100%.
The black square has percentages of CMYK. The CMY 0% K 100% square outputs to PDF as black only.
Can I amplify what Luciano said about text, Always, always put it above everything. I learnd this the hard way placing text in a InDesign doc. Had that annoying white line where there was a bitmap tile along with awful looking text. I have just noticed were are being censored on this forum! I just type "Cr*p" and it came out **** when did this happen?
Off-Topic comment response:
Commonly regarded obscene and offensive words are automatically censored via vBulletin software which replaces the offending characters with asterisks. Can you remember seeing obscene words appearing at TalkGraphics in the past Peter?
It is of course possible to remove all censored words from the list if you think TG members would prefer to read the intended vulgarity instead of just seeing **** and leaving it to the privacy of their own imagination ;)
XXPro5 can be used (being a bit careful) for serious CMYK and spot colors work, I could generate successful pdf files for labels, (short) brochures and newsletters.
I remember a series of labels for Champagne bottles which was composed only of six overprinting spot colors (black, browns, gold and UV lacquer), the printers required only files from Illustrator, I made them quickly in Xtreme, exported as pdf, text converted to curves and it worked without any problem.
XXPro4 didn't respect overprinting with CMYK colors in pdf output, but the problem has been solved in XXpro5.
At present only contone images with spot colors require some workarounds (otherwise they turn into composites).
It would be useful that among other templates Xara provided Xtreme Pro with a category reserved for professional printing, e.g. invitation cards with spot colors, newsletters with CMYK text or frames, etc., otherwise many capabilities remain hidden.
I have always made my own blacks when the image is intended for print. 50% magenta and 100% black for Rich Black. 50% cyan and 100% black for cool black. It is always wise to preflight documents for RGB images and convert them to CMYK. This is especially important for clip-art and photographic images of unknown origin. Some RIPS will convert RGB to greyscale, or omit the image completely...
Paul,
If you choose PDF x/1a as export type all elements are output automatically to CMYK, you should not have problems with any ripping method or printing company.
If you import pictures in Xtreme I do advice to import them as RGB, since they work better in XX and will be converted to CMYK in the final export to PDFx/1a.
Luciano
As a PDF x the problems are usually dealt with. Occasionally I run out separations directly from the software. Not exclusively Xara, but indesign, quark and illustrator. As a rule of thumb, I always make sure that all images are cmyk. Many years ago I sent the front cover of a Reader's Digest book as separations via isdn. Fortunately, it was just for a machine proof and not the main run. The authors photograph was omitted by the imagesetters rip. A close call, so I only work with cmyk finals. PDF x has made life a bit safer, but speaking as someone who very nearly got his finger seriously burnt, I'm now triple check and then some....
Something worse happened to me, we designed an invitation card, printed in 10,000 copies, with text provided by the client... the date was wrong and nobody realized until the cards were sent!
OMG !
I guess that would be an understatement.:'(
@luciano you should always have your client proof read the content. Always before going to press have them ok or sign a statement that it has been approved.