Indesign Print PDF for B/W
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- Atkinson
The printers I use are having trouble with b/w PDFs I send them. They're image based, exported as Fogra39 Uncoated.
They're being printed on a b/w Xerox digital printer / copier. Any grey above 50% roughly is just black, no detail. Any grey blow is too bright. It's like the contrast has been turned right up.
If I convert to b/w in Acrobat should that help?
Any suggestions would be great.
- d_rek0
Sounds like a color profile management issue...
What do the PDF's consist of... text and image? just text? just image?
If it's images i would wonder why you send them a PDF at all and not just the source image as a greyscale image or with an embedded profile.
Maybe ask if they have a specific color profile for B/W printing for that particular printer. Also... what is the quality of this printer? If it's just your standard office printer/copier then you really shouldn't expect that color come out as you would anticipate.
- Atkinson0
Thanks d_rek It is images, but they're books, so they're laid out as such.
No it's a big machine, much bigger than a stand alone copier. I forget the name.
- d_rek0
I'm not familiar with the Fogra39 Uncoated profile... so there could be a color profile conversion happenening somewhere.
My guess is that whatever embedded profile you are using is being converted before it hits the printer and it's losing and/or distorting the image information. It might be best to use a generic profile like SWOP v2 which tends to be pretty standard and safe for most printing.
Good luck!
- monospaced0
Try this out. Make the images black and white in photoshop and relink them in InDesign if this hasn't been done already. Then, Export as a PDF (do not Print to PDF) and select High Quality Print as your setting. Print it and tell me how it looks.
- I meant "Press Quality," not High Quality Print, as the setting. This will embed a SWOP v2 profile as d_rek suggested.monospaced
- suggested in his post above.monospaced
- bjladams0
i've worked a bit with xerox copiers - the rip often defaults b&w to actual black or white, with a 50% threshold. if you can convert to grayscale instead of b&w, do that. and then in the rip change from monocolor to grayscale too - this is how i've handled it in the past anyway.
also, our rip was wasach... not sure what they're using.
- Atkinson0
Right, I've converted the images to greyscale in photoshop and updated the links to them in Indesign. The images look fine in Bridge and PS but in Indesign they are way too black - same as the printers printed them. So at least now what is in indesign I know will print the same. But why are they blacker in indesign than other Adobe progs - colour is all synced from Bridge.
- tesmith0
Most b & w Xerox's don't have a robust RIP. Perhaps print b & w on a Xerox colour printer, shouldn't cost much more.