Graphics print washed out in pdf

Report · Feb 24, 2009

I am using Framemaker 8.0 with Acrobat distiller 6.0. In Frame I have import graphics from other Framemaker files which have different shades of brown in them. When I print these from Framemaker 8.0 everything is fine. When I distill and look at the PDF file all shades are reduced to one colour of brown. This happens if I save as a pdf or print using the adobe printer instance, save as a .ps file and then distil. In all cases I have been using the press quality settings on distiller. This all worked fine in Framemaker 7.0 but after the upgrade to Framemaker 8.0 my colours are not working out. Any solutions?

Report · Aug 17, 2009

Derek, sorry I don't have a solution. Just wanted to add that I have the same problem in Framemaker 9. "Save as pdf" results in washed out colors. I have mentioned this issue to colleagues who are using Framemaker 8. They do not have this problem. I have experimented with all the preference options (High quality print, smallest file size, etc.). All look about the same. If I print to a third party PDF virual printer the colors look right but there are no links of course. This might be a bug in Framemaker 9.

Report · Aug 17, 2009

Paul,

There is a setting in the maker.ini file that will affect the rendering of your colours when creating PDFs.

The setting GetLibraryColorRGBFromCMYK has four different options that affect color rendering. See thread: http://forums.adobe.com/message/1237968#1237968

There's also an old technote that covers some info on this as well: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/324/324220.html

The main thing is to set the option to "None". Also, when you generate the PDF using the SaveAsPDF route in FM9 make sure that you DO have the "Convert CMYK colors to RGB" option checked in the PDF Setup > Settings dialogue. This gives you the older FM8 behaviour. Leaving this option unchecked gives you the new FM9 CMYK PDF output - which unfortunately still has quite a number of issues.

Report · Aug 20, 2009

Thanks Arnis. "Convert CMYK colors to RGB" solved the problem for me.