Converting CMYK 'mono' pics but leave all else intact.

[frailer]

...sorta like Reagan's neutron bomb, right? Kill all the humans; leave the buildings intact. What a lovely guy..

But sorta like that. I picked this up before I need to plate, but am glad I did.

A school Yearbook text set. All peachy except that the pics are in CMYK 'mono', and need to be Grayscale. All text, headers etc are in Black, or tints of Black. Text is 100K in the virgin file, but is Outlined...

So, pics are sole problem..but, I ran EAL 'To Grayscale, keep black text'.. before I'd realised that text had been outlined. (Yes, I should have looked..   )

Can someone confirm that there is no EAL beast that will convert all my images, but leave everything else intact, like the Neutron Bomb?

It's only about 72 pp, so a manual conversion page by page is not too terrible,; I'll have time to do it, but cannot see such an EAL.

Output Preview is measuring Outlined type. You can see the 4 col pic...

[frailer]

Geez I'm glad most of you are asleep when I do this stuff. Gives me a chance to point out my own idiocy, rather than outsource it.

Just created an EAL for it :rolleyes:  ... though there didn't seem to be a bog standard one.

But someone could point out where I select GrayScale conversion ( Prefs.. PitStop?)

[Diddler]

Geez I'm glad most of you are asleep when I do this stuff. Gives me a chance to point out my own idiocy, rather than outsource it.

Just created an EAL for it :shocked:  ... though there didn't seem to be a bog standard one.

But someone could point out where I select GrayScale conversion ( Prefs.. PitStop?)

Coudn't you do it in XMF Preflight.

[frailer]

There are 8 x 4col pages dispersed in the middle. I've Extracted those, & shall replace them in XMF Run List.

BRB..toolin' with this now after a Mel Brooks' High Anxiety style job that I've just finished plating.. after 2 early mornings to do the next round of reproofing..

I'll send you a page out of this job, mate, and you'll see what I mean. I've been over-thinking it.  (where's Homer gone?)

[Joe]

Not sure I understand why 'Convert to Grayscale, keep black text' EAL won't work. As long as you have Color Management set to 'off' in Pitstop prefs the type will still be 100%.

[Joe]

Geez I'm glad most of you are asleep when I do this stuff. Gives me a chance to point out my own idiocy, rather than outsource it.

Just created an EAL for it :rolleyes:  ... though there didn't seem to be a bog standard one.

But someone could point out where I select GrayScale conversion ( Prefs.. PitStop?)

Your Pitstop Color Management is in Pitstop prefs or you can add it to your toolbar so it is easier to get to.

[frailer]

Not sure I understand why 'Convert to Grayscale, keep black text' EAL won't work. As long as you have Color Management set to 'off' in Pitstop prefs the type will still be 100%.

Yep, when I toggled Off' with 'Japan Prepress etc...' which we've been running; I'd need to stick with the latter... (see screenshots).
Off gives bogged-in. Sorta solves one problem & creates another.
So, although a pretty rare occurrence I'll try and remember  when it comes up again.  :dementiatest:

[Joe]

Not sure I understand why 'Convert to Grayscale, keep black text' EAL won't work. As long as you have Color Management set to 'off' in Pitstop prefs the type will still be 100%.

Yep, when I toggled Off' with 'Japan Prepress etc...' which we've been running; I'd need to stick with the latter... (see screenshots).
Off gives bogged-in. Sorta solves one problem & creates another.
So, although a pretty rare occurrence I'll try and remember  when it comes up again.  :dementiatest:

I always keep the setting to off but you're right, converting images doesn't work well with the off setting. If I need to convert an image I change the setting to use the Acrobat setting. I keep off as the default because most of the time I'm just converting text and want to make sure the type stays at 100%. Using the Acrobat settings in the CM though makes the images look a little washed out so I then do a curve correction with Pitstop to fix it. I haven't found a good setting for images with Pitstop CM that I like.

[frailer]

Not sure I understand why 'Convert to Grayscale, keep black text' EAL won't work. As long as you have Color Management set to 'off' in Pitstop prefs the type will still be 100%.

Yep, when I toggled Off' with 'Japan Prepress etc...' which we've been running; I'd need to stick with the latter... (see screenshots).
Off gives bogged-in. Sorta solves one problem & creates another.
So, although a pretty rare occurrence I'll try and remember  when it comes up again.  :dementiatest:

I always keep the setting to off but you're right, converting images doesn't work well with the off setting. If I need to convert an image I change the setting to use the Acrobat setting. I keep off as the default because most of the time I'm just converting text and want to make sure the type stays at 100%. Using the Acrobat settings in the CM though makes the images look a little washed out so I then do a curve correction with Pitstop to fix it. I haven't found a good setting for images with Pitstop CM that I like.

Yep...seems to sum it up. The one I got caught out on (understatement) a couple of weeks back had Grayscale pics, but '4-col monos' in as well. Doing a Global one for images only (which would have preserved the tint boxes & type), still would have changed the standing Grayscale pics. Might have improved some, but made others worse.  No choice on doing individually for the best result, (required in spades on that one).  hahaha.. 20/20 hindsight. A wunnerful thing.

Sad as this may sound, it's my first self-written EAL that I've actually used. I'm a late adopter. 

[Joe]

Yep...seems to sum it up. The one I got caught out on (understatement) a couple of weeks back had Grayscale pics, but '4-col monos' in as well. Doing a Global one for images only (which would have preserved the tint boxes & type), still would have changed the standing Grayscale pics. Might have improved some, but made others worse.  No choice on doing individually for the best result, (required in spades on that one).  hahaha.. 20/20 hindsight. A wunnerful thing.

Sad as this may sound, it's my first self-written EAL that I've actually used. I'm a late adopter. 

I don't think running a Pitstop 'convert to grayscale' will change an image that is already grayscale. At least with Acrobat DC and Pitstop 13 update 2 it doesn't.

[Ear]

Yep...seems to sum it up. The one I got caught out on (understatement) a couple of weeks back had Grayscale pics, but '4-col monos' in as well. Doing a Global one for images only (which would have preserved the tint boxes & type), still would have changed the standing Grayscale pics. Might have improved some, but made others worse.  No choice on doing individually for the best result, (required in spades on that one).  hahaha.. 20/20 hindsight. A wunnerful thing.

Sad as this may sound, it's my first self-written EAL that I've actually used. I'm a late adopter. 

I don't think running a Pitstop 'convert to grayscale' will change an image that is already grayscale. At least with Acrobat DC and Pitstop 13 update 2 it doesn't.

.... unless the PDF was made by writing postscript, then distilling to PDF. Postscript will convert based on global rendering intent, as opposed to treating each image, object, page independently.

[Joe]

Yeah but I think we're talking here about a PDF created in 2016. Haven't you heard? Postscript is dead. :tongue:

[frailer]

Yep...seems to sum it up. The one I got caught out on (understatement) a couple of weeks back had Grayscale pics, but '4-col monos' in as well. Doing a Global one for images only (which would have preserved the tint boxes & type), still would have changed the standing Grayscale pics. Might have improved some, but made others worse.  No choice on doing individually for the best result, (required in spades on that one).  hahaha.. 20/20 hindsight. A wunnerful thing.

Sad as this may sound, it's my first self-written EAL that I've actually used. I'm a late adopter. 

I don't think running a Pitstop 'convert to grayscale' will change an image that is already grayscale. At least with Acrobat DC and Pitstop 13 update 2 it doesn't.

Hmmm I could test that (I think it does), though probs a waste of effort, as, if we don't upgrade soon, we may as well not bother here. Not as though we're just doing store-front Chrissy cards and real estate flyers. GRRR!!
I think it's a combo of unassertive Mgr here, combined with bean counter(s) being pre-occupied with other aspects of the company... after all, we just burn printing plates, right? (winding myself up here... must calm down... get a cup of tea and consume piece of wife's quince cake...   )

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

I know I'm gonna catch shit for this, but I really never had very good luck with converting 4-color grays to black only with Pitstop. The problem I always had, was the converted image was just too dark and concentrated and plugged up bad on press, especially with offset substrates.

I manually opened every image in PS, run levels to balance it, then run an action with curves set to add 5% dot in the highlights and take the shadows down to 85 - 90%. It gives the Press guys a little more room to maneuver and does not plug up with offset paper.

It takes longer, but once you get into a groove, it goes pretty quick.

[elko]

and what about change color (dot gain 15% works fine) by acrobat?.....it should leave text 100K and change only objects in CMYK and so on