Color Output Problems

[Steve Rickaby]

At 08:51 -0700 26/9/07, Howard Rauch wrote:
>That one spot color is the problem. Commercial printers seem to dislike FrameMaker output for offset printing because, in the printers' view at least, Frame does a lousy job of handling color output. For the four catalogs, we have used three printers, and each one has had trouble with Frame's color output despite our setting up FrameMaker separations and Distiller to the printers' specifications. They claim that Frame outputs a lot of RGB color or mixes RGB and CMYK color. Basically our client is looking for answers two questions:...
>2. Assuming we continue with FrameMaker, how can we avoid the color issues we've had with commercial printers? I would think that many of you have encountered the same problems, and I am most interested in hearing how you solved them.

I can only speak for Mac, and I believe that Windows itself snarfs your colour. I do sop color jobs from Mac with no problem but it does require a lot of care to avoid extra color 'pollution' from creeping in, especially if someone else does the artwork.

Here is a set of guidelines for working with spot color in FrameMaker:

. Ask Steve Kubis at SiliconPrairie for his color tools plug-in [he's working on it].

. Ensure that you set FrameMaker's color views to output only black and the spot color, with white as knockout (if appropriate).

. Ensure that no extra colored objects creep into your FrameMaker files, such as table borders and shading, FrameMaker native artwork, text tints and so on.

. Check all imported artwork for anything other than spot color and black, and that the artwork's file format is CMYK and not RGB. In this respect, for Illustrator, it's real easy to accidentally include other colors, or process black or white, which will screw your separations / PDF plate count.

. Set all non-colored objects in Illustrator to greyscale.

. If using Illustrator with the spot color, ensure that its swatch options are set to 'Output as spot' (this option is on the swatch palette menu). For some unknown reason THE DEFAULT IS TO OUTPUT AS PROCESS! And there is no global default - or at least there isn't in Illustrator CS2. Yech.

. Preflight. Always. And then...

. Set up your output files in Acrobat [Pro], choose 'Separations preview', turn off the spot black and spot color, and scan the files for residual colored objects [this is real slow and boring].

. If the preflight or the printer reports lots of RGB, check that it is not coming from your crop marks. The AdobePS driver for Mac, for example, when set up with the Acrobat PDD and crops, puts RGB color in the crops (or at least Acrobat preflighting claims it does) even though there is no RGB in the page output. Nice.

. Add in any Windows-specific fixes, as suggested by other posters.

. Ask Adobe for the ability to find by color ;-)

HTH

-- 
Steve