InDesign preflight throws an error on 2-color eps art

[Rusty1111]

Greetings! Here's my issue:

Had a 2-color job open in INDY CC2017, ran a preflight that allows for spot and black only, and it flagged some of the placed eps files as containing C, M, and Y colors. I opened the eps’s to correct and didn’t find any violations. When the artist told me that they had created PDFs of their 2-color art and they separated fine, I tried placing the PDFs. I then ran my preflight, and the same artwork passed as 2-color.  Any ideas what is going on there?

I'm prepared to share the INDY file and my preflight 2-color preset if needed.

System:

MacPro, 3.5GHz, 6-Core Intel Xeon E5, 32GB memory

Software: Adobe CC2017, InDesign 2017

Thanks for any help! Rusty.

[Barbara Ash]

If you're willing to share one of the placed EPS files that exhibited the problem, I will take a look at it.

[Rusty1111]

Hi Barbara.

Sure. Thanks for being willing to help. From this eps you'll be able to generate a PDF that will create 2 plates only, but try it yourself.

What's the best way to share the file?

[rob day]

What's the best way to share the file?

Dropbox. Or your CC subscription lets you share files and folders you put in your local Creative Cloud Files folder:

/Users/~username/Creative Cloud Files

From the Creative Cloud App choose Assets>View Archive then under Files choose All and from there you can choose any file or folder and get a public link

[Rusty1111]

Barbara, Rob,

Here's a link to the project folder:

Adobe Creative Cloud

Note: I didn't bother with fonts, that's not an issue.

[rob day]

I think it's because there is some transparency associated with the file. The construction is too complex for me to find it, but if you open the Flattener Preview panel you can see the affected areas.

EPS doesn't support transparency so if you simply resave as an .AI file it passes preflight. In general there's no reason to use the eps format anymore, and when you encounter problems the first thing to do is convert to .AI or PDF.

[rob day]

I opened the eps’s to correct and didn’t find any violations.

I assume you opened and checked the EPS in Illustrator? Is the EPS all vectors—no images?

Did you try deleting all unused swatches so you only have Black and the spot color, and then Swatches>Add Used Colors? That will put any non swatch colors into the Swatches panel. Here you can see what appears to be a white fill actually has some CMYK

[Rusty1111]

Greetings Rob.

Tried your technique on a couple of offending eps files. There were no extra colors in the pallet, and when I 'added unused' no new colors were added back in.

That is a cool trick to remember tho. Thanks.

[Barbara Ash]

I had trouble loading your preflight settings, but I think that no matter what the Preflight is reporting, you are safe. I ran my own preflight and found just one spot color 157 and process black.

I opened the two EPS files in Illustrator. Only one color, the coral/melon color, is a spot color 157U.​ The others are all percentages of process black.

If I open the PDF and check Separations in the Output Preview panel, turning off CMY inks shows what you see in the screen capture below. It would appear that there are 2 inks in the PDF: 157 and process black.

[Willi Adelberger]

Simply never use EPS, use PDF/X-4 or AI files instead.

[Barbara Ash]

Adobe recommends using the native ai format when placing ai files into InDesign.

[Willi Adelberger]

Official redommendation of Adobe people is always PDF/X-4, but it is true, AI works as fine as PDF/X-4 does.

[BobLevine]

Placing AI just gives you the PDF portion of the file anyway.

[rob day]

I think the recommendation is for final output not files that need to be placed and edited. You could lose the capability to reliably edit a PDF/X-4.

[Rusty1111]

Thanks all for weighing in. As the prepress person, I need to write the standards for freelance designers and illustrators. I'm going to request all vector art be submitted as either .ai (native format) or saved as Press Quality PDF (so still fully editable). I prefer they make a PDF and confirm how many color plates are created anyway, that will save me time in the end if done properly.

Much appreciated!

Rusty

[Willi Adelberger]

You should specify the PDF as there are many ways to produce PDFs and most of them won't work for prepress.

My recommendation: If someone delivers files from Adobe InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop he should ONLY bring PDF/X-4 created via Export (InDesign) and Save As (Photoshop & Illustrator).

With other applications you should it narrow down.

Make also a black list how you don't accept them, like printed via PDF Writer or created via Ghostwriter or Apple Preview, MS Save as PDF (contrary to Save as Adobe PDF).

[Rusty1111]

Thanks Willi. Good points. I've also got an export to PDF preset from our primary printer I can supply. PDF/X-4 will work too if it allows for spot colors.

[Barbara Ash]

Spot colors are allowed in PDF/X-4

[Willi Adelberger]

If you place a PDF/X-4 in InDesign you get all benefits, and when the printer requires a different PDF, like X-1a or X-3 you can still export it to that requirement, but it would not be possible the other way round.

Spot colors are never a problem with X-standards.

And if you use a PDF instead of an EPS you can change the output of the spot color to process colors based on your colormanagement settings and the definition in the ink manager.

[rob day]

I'm going to request all vector art be submitted as either .ai (native format) or saved as Press Quality PDF (so still fully editable)

You cant maintain the PDF X standard an keep the file editable. Seems like you wouldn't want to risk accidentally creating a PDF that is no longer editable.