Print color separations, Prepare to print separations – Adobe Acrobat 9 PRO Extended User Manual

Page 456

450

USING ACROBAT 9 PRO EXTENDED

Printing

Last updated 9/30/2011

If you are using a print service provider to produce separations, you’ll want to work closely with its experts before
beginning each job and during the process.

To reproduce color and continuous-tone images, printers usually separate artwork into four plates—one plate for each
of the cyan (C), yellow (Y), magenta (M), and black (K) portions of the image. When inked with the appropriate color
and printed in register with one another, these colors combine to reproduce the original artwork. The process of
dividing the image into two or more colors is called color separating, and the films from which the plates are created
are called the separations.

Composite (left) and separations (right)

Print color separations

Acrobat supports host-based separations and in-RIP separations. The main difference between them is where the
separations are created—at the host computer (the system using Acrobat and the printer driver) or at the output
device’s RIP.

For host-based separations, Acrobat creates PostScript information for each of the separations required for the
document and sends that information to the output device. For in-RIP separations, the work of separating a file is
performed by the RIP. This method often takes less time than creating host-based separations, but it requires a
PostScript 3 output device with in-RIP separation capability. To produce in-RIP separations, you need a PPD file that
supports in-RIP separations, and any PostScript 3 output device or a PostScript Level 2 device whose RIP supports in-
RIP separations.

For more information on high-end PDF printing, see these resources:

•

Adobe PDF in the Print Production Workflow:

www.adobe.com/studio/print/pdfs/PDF_wp_A9_updates_july08.pdf

•

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Printing Guide:

www.adobe.com/designcenter/cs4/articles/cs4_printguide.html.

More Help topics