Ad looks bad after converting to CMYK (FOGRA39) 2 times

[Belsen01]

Hi,

I layout a magazine where my photos are RGB. I get some ads that are already CMYK when I get them.

What I have now done for many years without problems is to export a pdf and in Acrobat (X Pro) I chose Convert to CMYK only (Coated FOGRA39).

However this time the magazine came back with a problem I had not yet seen. My ad looked wrong - some detail was gone from a logo (gradients).

I obviously had not caught this.

The file I sent to the printer the logo was already wrong (the original looked fine).

I tested a few times and it happens when I chose Convert to CMYK only (Coated FOGRA39).

Is there a new profile I should get or is it just wrong to convert something to CMYK more than once?

Anita

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

I'm speculating:

You typeset your magazine in Indesign and do export as PDF.

These are my export options. Modern print shops can handle PDF/X4 and PDF/X-4 allows for RGB pictures, transparencies and other odd elements that where not allowed and needed to be flattened in PDF/X-3.

When you get and add as PDF just take that add and place it. works fine.

If you use a different workflow (preflight?) please let me know.

[Belsen01]

Thank you. I will use this profile in the future, looks like it works fine.

After export I run my printer's preflight profile which says it is all good.