Acrobat form field color help

[Brenda_DePaula@adobeforums.com]

I'm using Acrobat 6.0.2 to create fill-in-the-blank forms to be printed by a commercial printer. I need to assign specific Pantone colors to the fields to match the base pdf file. I run into a problem when printing. The file separates into 5 plates. CMYK for the fields that are assigned the pms color and a fifth plate for the pms color that the base pdf file is created with. What I need is a file that prints just one pms color.

Someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong so I can finish this project and move on with my life!!!!

Thanks,
Brenda

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

You can't create form fields in spot color.

Aandi Inston

[Brenda_DePaula@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the quick response Aandi. Is there a way to accomplish what I need with Java scripting or anything else?

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

I can't think of a way to get the fields to spot, directly or
indirectly. Sorry.

Aandi Inston

[Brenda_DePaula@adobeforums.com]

Hey Aandi,
Once again, thanks for the quick, if unwelcome, response. However, I'm sorta confused. I know of several print vendors that offer dynamic printing of business cards and forms. It sounds like what you're telling me is that they print these rather simple documents in 4 color rather than one. Is that accurate or am I missing something?

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

There are more ways to do dynamic printing than forms. Forms don't
even offer process color, and aren't really aimed at pre-press.

Truly dynamic printing would require PDF editing on a server,
something you can't do with Acrobat.

Aandi Inston

[Bret_Donaldson@adobeforums.com]

What aspect of the from filed are you trying create using spot color? The background? The text?

As mentioned earlier, form fields don't use spot color. If you want the background to be spot, then create the color/tint in you oroiginal document and create a text field with no background color.

If it's the text you want to be spot, you might try this. Create the entire file using black and/or percentages of black. This will generate a single plate for printing. Then tell the printer to use your desired PMS color to actually run the job.

[Brenda_DePaula@adobeforums.com]

Ok Aandi. We are using the FDF Toolkit with an ASP.NET application. From your experience, will it be possible to use spot colors in the fields or should we abandon the FDF Toolkit and go with a 3rd party product? If so, can you recommend one? By the way, the application allows our employees to dynamically create their business cards and send the print job to the vendor. Everything else about the application works fine, except I need to deliver the file to the vendor in a spot color. The background and design on the card work as spot color but the dynamically filled in form fields do not.

Thanks for all your help Aandi!
Brenda

[Brenda_DePaula@adobeforums.com]

Bret,
Thanks for the response. I tried that but the fields are still separating to 4 plates. Seems really strange but I think we're going to have to go a different route for pdfs that need to be professionally printed.

Brenda

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

I don't think the FDF toolkit can change things. There is no spot
color in form fields, so far as I know (though I think with some
effort and JavaScript you can have CMYK).

There are many tools, but support for spot color is rare; you should
probably make this the first thing to check.

Aandi Inston