generating and saving a pdf of flat with color bar

Started by deedee, September 25, 2014, 07:57:05 AM

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deedee

We are trying out a new plate, and the company wants us to generate a pdf of a flat that they can use to make sample plates. We have an old version of Apogee; we create our templates in Preps and do imposition in Apogee. The first preview pdf, before rendering, opens in Acrobat. It has crop marks etc (smart marks) but doesn't show the color bar (eps). I'm able to save this, but it doesn't do me much good without the color bar. After rendering, the pdf that we can view in Apogee has the color bar, but I can't save it. Suggestions?

DigitalCrapShoveler

Apogee? Apogee X, Apogee Series 2, 3....

Be specific.

If it is in X, you need to create an export workflow. It should go, Input > Template > Export. I don't really remember, it's been a few years, but I had to do exactly what you are trying to do for a different reason.

You will need to set up your export to save somewhere you can find it, Apogee X likes to stay local, but you can network share it. I had a folder on one of the servers set-up.
Member #285 - Civilian

deedee

I'm using Apogee X. And I am pretty new to Apogee and pre-press in general.

Some questions: After rendering the page, is the image that opens up (on the "checkered" background) a PDF? Plate company specified that we could not send them the 1-bit tiff generated by Apogee because they are proprietary. I'm wondering if that view is of the 1-bit tiff.

So my next question is... why is the color bar not showing up on the preview pdf? If I could get it to show up, that would solve all my problems.

We tried to set up the new workflow, but what with employee turnover, we don't really have anyone who knows all the ins and outs of doing that. And if that is saving the tiff for us, we can't use it anyway.

DigitalCrapShoveler

No, no... you don't want to use a tif. The checkered background is merely a preview and should not be used.

What you need to do is set up a process plan that has an export. I don't have Apogee X anymore, so I can't really show you visually how to do it.

Take an existing template you have that goes to plate or an output device and uses a template from Preps. Do a save as and name it Output PDF Imposed, or something like that. Now, see the first part of the plan that says normalize? Do you have one after that says, "Template" or "Imposed"? Go into the plan icons to the left and drag another impose under the lowest plan. Now, after normalize, draw a line to that new impose just like the first one. Go to the left again, and find the Export button. Drag it AFTER the impose and connect them. You need to set up the export to place the saved file to a place you can find it and set it to save as a PDF..

After that, make sure you set your impose to emulate the press sheet settings for your output plan by using the drag down menus.

You will have to have Administrator access to do any of this, and really, you need to have training on all of this. Apogee X is not something I would recommend the novice to use. You can do some serious damage if you don't do things correctly.
Member #285 - Civilian

deedee

Thanks, we will try this on Monday. We tried to set one up but could not find a block named "export".

DigitalCrapShoveler

Quote from: deedee on September 26, 2014, 03:03:31 PMThanks, we will try this on Monday. We tried to set one up but could not find a block named "export".

Like I said, I haven't used it in a few years, so I may be calling something else. It is an export function, but may be called something stupid, like AGFA is prone to do.
Member #285 - Civilian

DigitalCrapShoveler

Bear with me here, I had to put this together using screenshots I pulled off the web...

In the first image: this is what your process plan should look like.

The second image: this is where you set up the export function.
Hope this helps.

If not, I can't really help you any more than that. You have to have a working knowledge of Apogee X and your company has done a serious disservice to you, to expect you to do advanced shit like this with no training, and no one to help you.
Member #285 - Civilian

deedee

Hey, thought I would give you an update on what was going on...

I tried to set up the new workflow, but we did not have the export icon available. I ended up calling Agfa, and the tech said, well, looking at your file, it was not set up correctly, so I'll do that for you now.

BUT the color bar still wasn't showing up.

It was in the PDF rendering. It could not render our color bar eps, so he added a feature that changes the color bar to a pdf. So now it works.

I appreciate your help; it will help me in the future when I want to export something with our newly added export feature!

Thanks,
deedee