Separation Order

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Mark Casey
Newbie
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2019 1:47 pm
Location: Leeds, UK

Separation Order

Post by Mark Casey »

HI All

I have a PDF which has 4 Process Colours and 3 Spot Colours
The 3 Spots are listed as
SPOT UV
PMS 805
PMS811

Is there a way to move the SPOT UV to be the Last Separation?

So that when this imports into XMF the correct spot colours are Mapped to the 5th & 6th Colours on the Colour Bar

Thanks in Advance
freddyp
Advanced member
Posts: 1008
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:53 pm

Re: Separation Order

Post by freddyp »

The first question is whether your PDF defines the PrintingOrder or not. That information is stored in Root/OutputIntents/MixingHints/PrintingOrder. It is not visible in the Inspector, but you can check the presence with the "Check Mixing Hints in Output Intent" Action. If it is present, then you would need an Action to change that, but that action does not exist. If that information is not present the order is undoubtedly determined by the order in which the rip sees the objects and their colors, and then you would need an Action to add it.

I will submit a feature request, but I need a bit more information. Changing the PrintingOrder does not pose any technical challenges, it is "just" a matter of changing the order of elements in an array. The big question is how to determine the change in printing order? I can see a setting to determine the CMYK printing order: many print YMCK. But what about the spot colors? First PANTONE and then the rest? But what about the order of the PANTONEs when there are several? Opaque inks/foils go last? And what about yellow on top of silver to create gold, or magenta to create copper? You see it is not that straightforward.

The easiest approach I see from the perspective of PitStop is that you would provide a comma-separated list through a variable. The problem of determining the order is then your problem, but perhaps it is not a big problem because the order is defined in your MIS?
Mark Casey
Newbie
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2019 1:47 pm
Location: Leeds, UK

Re: Separation Order

Post by Mark Casey »

Hi Freddy
Thanks for your input
Its not that important for the printing order
I just need to push any separation that is not a PMS to the end of the list
Thanks
freddyp
Advanced member
Posts: 1008
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:53 pm

Re: Separation Order

Post by freddyp »

The actual printing order is not important for what you need, I understand that. The first vital question to answer is whether your file contains a PrintingOrder or not? Have you checked that?

If it does and the rip honors that order, then you have to remove it (you can do that with "Remove Output Intents"). If it does not and the rip takes the order from the order of the objects in the file you should put the SPOT UV at the top (PDFs are interpreted bottom up).
Mark Casey
Newbie
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2019 1:47 pm
Location: Leeds, UK

Re: Separation Order

Post by Mark Casey »

HI Freddy
We appear to have NO Printing Order specified within the PDF
Mark
freddyp
Advanced member
Posts: 1008
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:53 pm

Re: Separation Order

Post by freddyp »

Next question: are the SPOT UV objects at the top? If you want to be certain, you can select them with the PitStop select tool, right click, Object order -Bring to front (note that a PitStop tool has to be selected in Acrobat to get the context-sensitive options).
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