Adobe Community: [CS5] Exporting PDF with PDF/X-1a:2001, get CMYK Error

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1. Peter Spier,

Sep 10, 2011 4:35 AM in reply to lhanneman

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Do you have any indexed color swatches or styles that might be using indexed color in the doc?

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2. lhanneman,

Sep 16, 2011 1:34 PM in reply to Peter Spier

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Thanks for the reply.

I'm really not sure about the swatches. We did find, however, that the error doesn't happen on our Live InDesign Server. The problem I've described, only happens on our development server which applies a watermark to every exported pdf, jpg, etc. We've concluded that it must be the watermark causing the non-CMYK warning. Have you ever heard anything about that?

What seems odd to me is that I thought the PDF/X-1a standard automatically converts anything non-CMYK to CMYK? Maybe that isn't the case.

Thanks again!

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3. Peter Spier,

Sep 16, 2011 2:42 PM in reply to lhanneman

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I expect the watermark is applied AFTER the PDF is created. In order to be included inthe export it would need to be in the ID file. Is there a watermark file someplace?

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4. Rob Day,

Sep 16, 2011 3:33 PM in reply to lhanneman

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I've seen PDF/X-1a warnings associated with certain versions of color profiles. When you get the warning is there an option for getting more info? What destination profile are you using?Does it happen with the default Color Settings preset?

if I run a script that attempts to export the same exact document on our InDesign Server, I get an error "warning" which causes the script to fail:

You should be able to stop any dialogs inside of the script. With AppleScript you would add this line at the beginning:

set user interaction level of script preferences to never interact

and then turn interaction back on at the end with this:

set user interaction level of script preferences to interact with all

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5. Rob Day,

Sep 16, 2011 3:41 PM in reply to lhanneman

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For example I get this when a use the SNAP 2007 newsprint profile as the CMYK destination. When I ignore the warning the exported PDF looks fine and its CMYK values are correct.

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6. lhanneman,

Sep 19, 2011 5:38 AM in reply to Rob Day

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@rob, thanks for the reply.

I'll check into the color profiles, but there isn't an option to get more info. The exact, and full, warning message is stated in my original question.

As for the user interaction level for the script, that does work if I run the script locally in my desktop InDesign, but the script fails when run on our InDesign server because there isn't a user interaction level on the server.

I'd really prefer not to just ignore the warnings as it states "it won't produce a PDF/X-1a compliant file". My hope is to find a way that will fully convert anything non-CMYK to CMYK so even if it is that watermark (which I have no idea where that would be stored on the server, @Peter) we can just convert it too.

Thanks again!

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7. Rick E Johnson,

Aug 7, 2012 1:49 PM in reply to Rob Day

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I'm getting the same error using ID CS5 also, but under different circumstances.

An AppleScript exports a PDF for print using the X-1a preset, and works once without an error. Next it outputs a PDF for digital editions using a preset for Zinio, again error-free. Next the script outputs the next page using the X-1a preset and then I get the error with every remaining X-1a export. When exporting manually, we get the error dialog. When using a script, which we greatly prefer to allow us to batch process files and save hours of tedious work, the export line returns error -128, thinking the user has cancelled, and does not export the PDF. It's as though something remained stuck in InDesign's memory and the X-1a preset info didn't fully repopulate InDesign's internal data.

Is there a way for a script to clear that memory before applying the preset? Or is there a known field in other presets that doesn't get updated when the X-1a preset is reapplied? I really don't want to resort to something like quitting and restarting InDesign between every page of every publication just so ID loads the X-1a preset correctly.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

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8. Rob Day,

Aug 7, 2012 2:39 PM in reply to Rick E Johnson

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Are you using the default PDF/X-a preset without any alterations? What's the document CMYK profile?

Does the script work if you stop user interaction dialogs? Something like this:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

set user interaction level of script preferences to never interact

--code

set user interaction level of script preferences to interact with all

end tell

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9. Rick E Johnson,

Aug 9, 2012 8:04 AM in reply to Rob Day

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Thanks, Rob,

This helps. The "never interact" option is where I got the "-128 user cancelled" error. I can't use "interact with all" because we need the script to run unattended.

I was told that our variant of the default X-1a preset changed only the marks and bleeds, but I'll dig deeper because using the default preset, the error doesn't occur. It also didn't occur with CS4, only CS5, and oddly works perfectly only until using an RGB PDF output, but at least I now have ideas for a workaround.

Thanks,

Rick

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10. Rob Day,

Aug 9, 2012 8:29 AM in reply to Rick E Johnson

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I was told that our variant of the default X-1a preset changed only the marks and bleeds, but I'll dig deeper because using the default preset, the error doesn't occur.

How about if you make a new preset based on the default X-1a but make the one cropmark change? Maybe the preset that creates the error has been corrupted.

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11. Rick E Johnson,

Aug 9, 2012 1:45 PM in reply to Rob Day

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Experimentation showed that when a document is closed and re-opened, the PDF preset works again, at least until after InDesign has exported the next page that includes indexed color. Several times during the process of exporting PDFs from a publication, there may be a flashing on the screen as a document re-opens, but the process can continue unattended again. Thanks again for your suggestions. -- Rick

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[CS5] Exporting PDF with PDF/X-1a:2001, get CMYK Error

Sep 8, 2011 8:18 AM

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