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maryanne1383@me.com
maryanne1383@me.com
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Can anyone help me with spot colors within an InDesign table? They don't show up in Acrobat!

Jun 26, 2010 1:43 PM

Hello everyone!

 

I have a problem. I am working on a textbook that has the answers in a spot color. (InDesign CS4 6.05; MAC 10.5.8) I strip the color out in the pdfs. However, if the spot color is within a table the spot color does not show up in Acrobat (9.0)! The only way I can get the spot color to show up in Acrobat is to take the spot color text out of the table and put it on top of the table.  Does anyone know a workaround or something I'm doing wrong? I've looked everywhere. I tried overprint, changing spot to overprint, etc. And nothing works. By the way, I only have a problem if the offending spot color is part of a table! I would appreciate your help!

 

Spot Color Within the Table

SpotWithinTable.png

Spot Color in a text box on TOP of the table

SpotTopTable.png

1248 Views   14 Replies   Latest reply: Piotrak, Jan 17, 2011 4:14 PM
 
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  • Peter Spier
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    1. Peter Spier,
    Jun 26, 2010 1:49 PM   in reply to maryanne1383@me.com
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    It looks like what you are saying is your custom spot color is being converted to process balck in the tables. Is that right?

     

    Have you tried using a color from the regualr Pantone spot libraries? I did a book recently that was all tables in two spot colors with no problems. You can pick any color you like -- just tell the printer to put it on the black plate, or load black in the spot unit for the teacher's edition.

     
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  • maryanne1383@me.com
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    2. maryanne1383@me.com,
    Jun 26, 2010 2:39 PM   in reply to Peter Spier
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    Hi Peter,

     

     

    Thanks for your quick reply.Yes, the spot grey is  being converted to black, but only if it is in a table. Otherwise it works fine.

     

    I have to use this specific spot color, per the publisher's request. It is for a very large publisher and is used in several books. Plus, the pdfs are turned over as individual pdfs and a few hundred pdfs have already been made. I never actually have any contact with the actual printer. The only work-around that I have come up with is to strip the text from the table and place it on top. But I'm thinking that there has to be a better way!

     
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  • Scott Falkner
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    3. Scott Falkner,
    Jun 26, 2010 2:41 PM   in reply to maryanne1383@me.com
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    Humour us. Try using a Pantone ink to see if that makes a difference. If it does you can alias it to your custom grey through the Separations Preview panel.

     
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  • maryanne1383@me.com
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    4. maryanne1383@me.com,
    Jun 26, 2010 3:01 PM   in reply to Scott Falkner
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    Okay. The annos are now Pantone 3285

    PantoneColor.png

    Picture 19.png

     
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  • Scott Falkner
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    5. Scott Falkner,
    Jun 26, 2010 3:06 PM   in reply to maryanne1383@me.com
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    OK, that made no difference.

     

    Is there something going n with transparency? Is the text frame containing the table set to a transparency mode other than Normal, 100%? Is there something above the text frame with a drop shadow or other transparency effect applied? Try moving the text frame to a new layer and put that layer above all other layers.

     
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  • maryanne1383@me.com
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    6. maryanne1383@me.com,
    Jun 26, 2010 3:15 PM   in reply to Scott Falkner
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    It's just crazy, isn't it? No, transparency is normal. I tried a new (upper) layer. I even tried putting just the column with the anno to a new layer and the bottom line is that if it is in a table, it won't work. I even thought it might have something to do with overprint and so I set the character style to overprint. Nothing works.

     

    Picture 21.png

     
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  • Peter Spier
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    7. Peter Spier,
    Jun 26, 2010 3:22 PM   in reply to maryanne1383@me.com
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    Does this happen in all docs that you make?

     

    Can you make up a sample to post so we can look at it on our systems?

     
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  • maryanne1383@me.com
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    8. maryanne1383@me.com,
    Jun 26, 2010 3:25 PM   in reply to Peter Spier
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    Give me a few minutes and i will check another document and send you a sample. Thank you.

     
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  • maryanne1383@me.com
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    9. maryanne1383@me.com,
    Jun 26, 2010 4:02 PM   in reply to Peter Spier
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    I think you are on to something. I tried several different things. I tried another chapter with the problem and a "save as" got rid of the problem. I tried a save as on the chapter I have been using for this forum and the "save" as didn't work. However, if I took the table and pasted it to a blank document, problem gone. Then I took the offending document and deleted all the pages except for the two with the tables, did a "save as" but the problem didn't go away. Then because I wanted to upload a file as small as possible, I deleted the art. This time no problem! Do you think it could be the art??????

     

     

    Let me know if you still want any of these files.

     
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  • Peter Spier
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    10. Peter Spier,
    Jun 26, 2010 5:15 PM   in reply to maryanne1383@me.com
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    Could be the art, but more likely it's something else. Take a look at Remove minor corruption by exporting and give that a shot. Let us know if it works.

     
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  • maryanne1383@me.com
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    11. maryanne1383@me.com,
    Jun 28, 2010 8:50 AM   in reply to Peter Spier
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    Unfortunately, that didn't work. I tried exporting to both inx and idml. But even if it had worked I couldn't have gone that route because it messed up my fonts.....it made most of the fonts "medium" and it is too late in the workflow for that!

     

    But guess what I did find out? By accident, (on my regular document before export) I exported more than one page. On that document, I am able to remove the spot color, I guess because the spot color is on another page without issues!!

     

    So I think the workaround for me will be to print two pages when I have a table that is giving me trouble, then delete the second page after the spot color is removed. (I am required to provide single page pdfs, distilled individually, for the publisher.) I prefer this method over taking text out of the table and placing it on another layer within InDesign. I think there is much less room for error deleting an extra page from a pdf, doing a "save as" as opposed to a sloppy InDesign document.

     

    You have been a great help Peter; I really appreciate it.

     

    MaryAnne

     
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  • Peter Spier
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    12. Peter Spier,
    Jun 28, 2010 9:20 AM   in reply to maryanne1383@me.com
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    The distilled PDF workflow is from the Dark Ages, but I won't get into that.

     

    I don't see a purpose in sending 100 files for a 100 page document -- even distilled you can make a PDF that is 100 individual pages in one go from that .indd file. if the printer insists on having 100 files to keep track of you can us Acrobat to exctract the pages as individual files after you make the PDF. Much faster.

     
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  • maryanne1383@me.com
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    13. maryanne1383@me.com,
    Jun 28, 2010 11:40 AM   in reply to Peter Spier
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    I absolutely agree with you about the the distilled workflow, but the publisher insists and they are the ones paying. Vendors are not allowed to exract the files either which was a real problem for me because I was working in Snow 10.6.4 and had to transfer everything to a machine running 10.5.8 because 10.6.4 will not allow printing postscript files to Acrobat!

     

    See http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/509/cpsid_50981.html#ionComHeading

    "Technical changes in Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) prevent Adobe from delivering a PostScript-based printer module"

     

     

    Again, thank you for all your help.

     
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  • Piotrak
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    14. Piotrak,
    Jan 17, 2011 4:14 PM   in reply to maryanne1383@me.com
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    Hi, I know this is quite long time from the discussion but I also noticed such problem with spot colors in tabels. My solution is very simple - I just draw a rectangle (for instance) and give it the spot color then place it under the table.

    You can simply place it under the header which consists the spot color or apply white background to few rows of table and place the object under them.

     

    Just copy the object to other pages and place it under other tabels.

     

    Well, I suppose it is not the trick that was purposely invented by Adobe but it works - Acrobat "sees" spot colors in separations.

     

    Best wishes

    Peter

     
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