Automate an Action

[Slappy]

Here's the deal:

Large catalog with several hundred illustrations, some are grayscale & some are 4c and they're all comprised of a solid black with an extruded background gradient, like pictured.

I've created an Action to convert those gradients to the same Grayscale build as the rest, but I can't make it select JUST the gradient object when using the Batch function. Anybody done something like this?

I used the Insert Menu Item to try and do a Select Similar Fill but no luck. FWIW, the gradient is an FX Layer, 3D Extrude & Bevel on all of the files.

[Joe]

Is converting to grayscale not giving you something you can use?

[Slappy]

It's not doing anything, because the "Select Similar Fill" step doesn't actually select anything. I guess without an initial Selection, it can't Select Similar so I was trying to find a way to have it Select based on the Appearance Attribute but still no bueno.

I'm thinking as much time as it'll take to try and Automate, I should just suck it up & convert them all manually.

I can throw you a live file if you want to mess around too.

[Ear]

I wonder if something similar to "convert color to gray, leave 100% black as black" will work. I use that action a lot.

[Ear]

I can send it to you, if you'd like. You will probably need to tweak it some, but it is a good starting point for stuff like this.

Dropbox link...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wmj8fkraju15oyy/Convert%20Color%20to%20Gray%20and%20keep%20black%20text.eal.zip?dl=0

[Ear]

I just looked at the attributes of my action and I use it for CMYK built black, mostly. In your case, you might need to Manage the action and change the Select to RGB. It's easy to modify. That said, this action has caught and fixed RGB objects too.

[Joe]

It's not doing anything, because the "Select Similar Fill" step doesn't actually select anything. I guess without an initial Selection, it can't Select Similar so I was trying to find a way to have it Select based on the Appearance Attribute but still no bueno.

I'm thinking as much time as it'll take to try and Automate, I should just suck it up & convert them all manually.

I can throw you a live file if you want to mess around too.

You could try adding a 'Select All' to your action and then convert to gray.

[Joe]

I can send it to you, if you'd like. You will probably need to tweak it some, but it is a good starting point for stuff like this.

Dropbox link...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wmj8fkraju15oyy/Convert%20Color%20to%20Gray%20and%20keep%20black%20text.eal.zip?dl=0

I think he is using Illustrator.

[Slappy]

It's not doing anything, because the "Select Similar Fill" step doesn't actually select anything. I guess without an initial Selection, it can't Select Similar so I was trying to find a way to have it Select based on the Appearance Attribute but still no bueno.

I'm thinking as much time as it'll take to try and Automate, I should just suck it up & convert them all manually.

I can throw you a live file if you want to mess around too.

You could try adding a 'Select All' to your action and then convert to gray.

I did - and it grabs the solid black object on top & makes it an unusable gray build Boooo!!!

I can send it to you, if you'd like. You will probably need to tweak it some, but it is a good starting point for stuff like this.

Dropbox link...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wmj8fkraju15oyy/Convert%20Color%20to%20Gray%20and%20keep%20black%20text.eal.zip?dl=0

I think he is using Illustrator.

Yup, but I have Pitstop too - I'll try this on the PDF,

[Joe]

It's not doing anything, because the "Select Similar Fill" step doesn't actually select anything. I guess without an initial Selection, it can't Select Similar so I was trying to find a way to have it Select based on the Appearance Attribute but still no bueno.

I'm thinking as much time as it'll take to try and Automate, I should just suck it up & convert them all manually.

I can throw you a live file if you want to mess around too.

You could try adding a 'Select All' to your action and then convert to gray.

I did - and it grabs the solid black object on top & makes it an unusable gray build Boooo!!!

Go ahead and post one of the live files. I have some time to kill.

[Joe]

I got your file Slappy. Below are my Illy color settings. When I do a Select All and convert to grayscale the 4 color black comes out to 100% K for me instead of an unusable gray build.

[Ear]

Duh, it IS in the Illustrator section. I saw Action and global conversions and instantly thought PitStop. But really, why not... PitStop is usually faster and easier than Illy with conversions like this.

[mattbeals]

Simply put you could use a remap color function to select a color range of say 95% to 99% and change that color to 100. Or for device gray I believe it is 1 to 4 and change to 0 if I recall correctly. Device gray is inverted 100-0 instead of 0-100.

Or, you could use an ICC profile that has a linear black channel (or make a device gray ICC profile itself) where the black limit is 100 and there is no dot gain. http://automatetheworkflow.com/cms/

[Slappy]

Yeah, I sucked it up & converted them all manually. I mean, the "short" Action I had took care of all the gradient portions in Illy, just a lot of Select-click-Save-repeat.

Oh well, I get paid by the minute! 

[Ear]

Repetitious keyboard-mouse shit like that reminds me of drum rudiments we had to practice.