CMYK colour in Postscript file dull in Acrobat document.

[Guesst webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

FreeHand MX.
OS X 10.2.6
Acrobat Distiller 5 or 6

I have a document in FreeHand MX containing a nice, bright-looking C0 75M 100Y 0K 4-C colour.
Applied as a totally normal fill to a box.

When I make a PostScript file from FreeHand via a localhost printer using the Adobe Distiller PPD from Acrobat Distiller 5 as the PPD, I can successfully distill it using Distiller - either on Mac OS X using Distiller 6 or on Mac OS 9 using Distiller 5.05.
However, my nice bright orange colour goes completely flat and dull.

I am using ColorSync settings in FreeHand MX
- Monitor profile made using the Calibration part of OS X Monitors control panel
- Monitor simulates seperations printer
- Seperations printer profile for Euroscale Coated v2
- Rendering set to relative

Proofer set to simulate seperations printer
- Proofer profile for iProof PowerRIP X on Epson 1200
- RGB source set to my scanner profile from Mikrotek

Acrobat is set up to not change colours and produce an Acrobat 3 PDF 1.2 compatible PDF.

It makes no difference distilling the PostScript file in Acrobat 5 on a different Mac under OS 9 or on the same Mac under OS X.2.6. The colours get ruined - even though I have specifically set Distiller - in both systems - to not change colours.

It must be something to do with the PostScript file that is printed from FreeHand MX.
But what?

[Judy Arndt]

Guesst wrote:

> I have a document in FreeHand MX containing a nice, bright-looking C0 75M 100Y
> 0K 4-C colour.
>
> When I make a PostScript file [ ... ] my nice bright orange colour goes

completely flat and dull.

Bright, clear oranges are impossible to reproduce with CMYK. What you see in
the PDF is probably close to what you would get off the press.

Don't trust what you see on your screen. Your FH color management setup
probably isn't as good as it could be, but even the best is not reliable
enough for most pro's.

Get yourself a printed Pantone Process Guide. If you're trying to find CMYK
approximations of Pantone Solid Inks, get a Pantone Solid to Process Guide.

If you must have a bright orange, consider using an orange spot ink. Again,
don't trust your screen for Pantone Solid colors. Use the printed guides.

Judy Arndt

[Angusdog webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

I tried to replicate your prooblem in FH MX using the same colours. I find colours in Freehand inaccurate, so base my judgements on how it looks in Photoshop, or Acrobat Exchange.

Printing and distilling without any colour management in Distiller produces exactly the same colour in the PDF - have you tried opening the PDF in Photoshop and measuring it there? I'd wager that it measures correctly, and backs up my experience with Freehand - it usually shows colours much too saturated. I've tried in the past to calibrate Freehand, now I've given up and if a job's colour is critical, then I check and adjust it in Photoshop.

You should check out how your colour measures in Photoshop - if it's the same, then your issue is really with how Freehand represents the colour.