Acrobat 4 Prepress info

[inez@adobeforums.com]

In Acrobat 4, what is the usefulness under Documnet Info/Prepress of the
option to select Trapping: yes, no, unknown; and checking Print 4 color ICC
as DeviceCMYK.

The guide states:
Prepress gives information about the document that may be helpful in a
prepress workflow. The Trapping pop-up menu describes whether trapping has
been applied to the file; this information can be used by prepress software
to determine whether to apply trapping to the file at print time. The Print
4 Color setting tells whether four-color ICC profiles should be treated as
device-dependent CMYK.

I'm creating a CMYK composite PDF from Quark 4.11 doc. My QXP trap
information is discarded during distilling, so do I open the distilled PDF
in Acrobat 4 and select Trapping: No?

As far as the colors are concerned, I work without color management on and
distill with color uncahnged. I get the best results this way. So, do I
check or uncheck the Print 4 color ICC as DeviceCMYK?

Or should I just not bother with these options?

The composite PDF is to be placed in InDesign and sent to separations via
XitronRIP/Linotronic 330 imagesetter. I have no idea how InDesign will treat
the PDF. Is it a treated as a flat file/raster image at this point? Do I
need to worry about knockout fringe if the RIP doesn't have trapping
capabilities?

inez

[Jon_Bessant@adobeforums.com]

Your workflow seems not optimal - are YOU generating the separations -
of somebody else?

Have you (if the bureau) output PDF before?

Jon

[inez@adobeforums.com]

I'm sorry, did I ask about workflow? I didn't mean to.

Yes, I have output PDF before. I always print to PS file and distill in
accordance to specs supplied by the specific printer. This printer has not
been able to supply me with specs as *they don't know how to create a PDF
for their own workflow*.

(No, I can't change printers. They are my client's printer.)

I'm confident that my joboptions are suitable for distilling. But this
printer has not been able to tell me for months whether or not they have
in-RIP trapping. This is the first I've learned that they have printed from
PDF successfully; ones supplied by someone else.

I know my QXP 4.11 trap settings will go POOF in composite PDF, but that
knockout and overprint remain. But I was just curious if those Prepress
settings in Acrobat would basically tell their RIP to trap IF it is
available? I've never touched those options before; not sure how/if they
work.

I'm planning on sending a composite PDF (or 2) and a separated PDF (with
traps), just to cover everything I can this first time. I have no idea why
they use InDesign rather than Acrobat to send the composite to seps. It was
Friday afternoon when I suddenly got the little windfall information I
received about the kind of RIP/imagesetter they use. I don't want to rock
their boat without specific information/how-tos, so I'm aiming at *their
current workflow*.

Normally I send the QXP files/images/fonts all over dialup. It takes hours!
They then open in QXP and print seps to XitronRIP/Linotronic 330
imagesetter. The files go pretty much as I send them unless someone
accidently catches a mistake. No preflight AFAIK. I noticed in the first
files that I was seeing some knockout fringe in print. So, I started setting
traps. Since they send to postscript from QXP my traps are being honored.
But, I think if they happen to have in-RIP trapping I could just set QXP to
Knockout All, creat composite PDF and their RIP would take it from there.
Unfortunately I need psychic powers to figure out what's going on at the
other end. I wouldn't like seeing the return of that fringe, but I
positively hate spending time manually setting traps in QXP, and uploading
for hours.

inez

[Jon_Bessant@adobeforums.com]

As you know - you currently send untrapped PDFs for output. Your
provider should be then using in-RIP trapping libraries to ensure that
the correct traps are applied.

There is not much else you can do except ask for trapping to be
performed - or go somewhere else.

Probably your client will have to wait for something to go wrong before
this becomes reality.

I do feel for you .... but that's why many printers out there are
continually updating their workflows - to provide clients with
value-added ... the ones who do not - should sink under the water.

Jon