Part 2: PDF colour reproduction

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In this month’s newsletter we will take a look at PDF colour spaces and print quality.

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In an ideal world the PDF documents supplied to print shops should have been colour managed and created to the printing conditions used at the print shop, to achieve an accurate colour print result for the artwork.

At the creation stage of the PDF, Adobe InDesign will attach an ICC profile to the PDF as an Output Intent. In most cases the Output Intent profiles attached to PDF files are incorrect, compared to the printing conditions used by the print shop.

Another challenge is the colour management settings on the RIP technology in place at the print shop, these settings could influence the print results of the artwork.

The combination of these two variables could result in incorrect colour reproduction of the artwork.

So how can you enhance your colour reproduction?

• Utilising the correct ICC profiles for converting RGB, Lab and CMYK images, as well as attaching the same ICC profile as the Output Intents when creating PDF files.
• Use the ISOcoated-v2 ICC profile that is linked to the Australian printing standards for colour conversions and Output Intents
• Use the ISOcoated-v2 ICC profile to increase the printing efficiency
• By improving your colour reproduction, you will achieve your return on investment in less than 4 months. ROI Document

In next month’s newsletter we will show you how various ink weights of PDF files will lead to print run instability.

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TIP of the month:

Exporting PDF/X1-a files from Adobe InDesign for printing

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