About composite printing, Print a color composite, About separations – Adobe Acrobat 9 PRO Extended User Manual
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USING ACROBAT 9 PRO EXTENDED
Printing
Last updated 9/30/2011
About composite printing
When you print a color PDF, all of the colors used in the file print on one plate. This process is called composite
printing. The options available in the Output panel of the Advanced Print Setup dialog box depend on the selected
printer.
Artwork that will be commercially reproduced and that contains more than a single color must be printed on separate
master plates, one for each color. This process is called color separation. If you’re creating color separations, you can
print a color or grayscale composite proof to check your work.
Consider the following issues when printing composites:
•
Any overprinting options that you select print correctly only on a printer that supports overprinting. Since most
desktop printers don’t support overprinting, you can simulate the effects of overprinting by selecting Simulate
Overprinting in the Output panel of the Advanced Print Setup dialog box. Be aware that selecting Simulate
Overprinting converts spot colors to process colors for printing. If you intend to use a file for final output, do not
select this option.
•
When you print to a black-and-white printer, a grayscale composite version of the pages is produced (unless you
select Print Color As Black in the main Print dialog box; this option prints all nonwhite color as black). If the
document contains color, visually correct grays are used to simulate that color. For example, the gray that simulates
a 20% tint of yellow is lighter than a 20% tint of black, since yellow is visually lighter than black.
Note: Remember that, like monitors, color printers vary greatly in color reproduction quality; thus, proofs from your
service provider are the best way to verify how the finished piece will look.
More Help topics
Print a color composite
1 Choose File > Print, and choose a printer.
2 Specify page handling options.
3 Choose Document And Stamps from the Comments And Forms menu to print all visible content.
4 Click Advanced, and select Output on the left side of the dialog box.
5 Choose a composite option from the Color menu.
6 Specify other color and output settings, and click OK.
7 If the document contains objects with transparency settings, select an option from the Transparency Flattening
Preset menu.
8 (PostScript printing only) In the PostScript Options panel, specify options.
More Help topics
About separations
To produce high-quality separations, it helps to be familiar with the basics of printing, including line screens,
resolution, process colors, and spot colors.