PDF/X-4:2010 Preflight Warning: Colour separation for special colour are inconsistence

[M Cor]

Hi!

Maybe the community can help me with this:

When exporting a InDesign-document to Adobe PDF/X-4:2010 for prepress/print, I get a warning about color separation inconsistency. When checking this out, it points to the ”cutting-marks” and to the document-info of the PDF (this is all outside the printing-area). It also warns about the system font Helvetica. 

I have never seen this warning before. And even more strange: When I do a preflight of the PDF in smaller chunks of pages, everything is ok. The PDF-document have 336 pages.

Translation, screenshots:

Registreringfärg = Special colour

Övertryck av/på = Overprint on/off

I work in:

Adobe Acrobat, version 2025.001.20841 (Creative Cloud Standard)

Adobe InDesign, version 21.0.1 (Creative Cloud Standard)

Mac Studio Sequoia 15.6.1

/Marta

[rob day]

Hi @M Cor , Does the PDF pass Arobat’s default Verify Compliance with PDF/X-4 profile? Are you using the default Type in Marks and Bleeds when you Export the PDF/X-4?

[M Cor]

Hi rob day!

Thank you so much for your answer. No, it doesn’t pass (?). I am using a custom export-profile (from the publisher and the prepress company), marks and bleed are a little bit modified. 

One suggestion I’ve received is to uninstall InDesign (and reinstall the app). It was the Helvetica font in the file info text that was messing things up, somehow. But since I’m in the final stages of a couple of important book projects, I don’t really want to reinstall the InDesign app at this moment. The prepress company believes it will be fine, as the warning does not affect the printing surface.

It’s a strange preflight warning I guess (I am not an expert), there’s also no way to correct the color (?) of the infotext or the marks and bleed.

/Marta

[rob day]

Does it happen if you use the [PDF/X-4:2008] preset with no modification—preset is [PDF/X-4:2008] and not [PDF/X-4:2008] (modified)?

Also, in Acrobat if you check File>Properties>Fonts is Helvetica (embedded Subset) listed?

[M Cor]

Wow, look at this, Rob Day:

No problems found when exporting to [PDF/X-4:2008] preset with no modification, and no problems when I run the PDF through preflight, both the standard one and the preflight that the prepress company created (and which will be used in this case). I notice that the output intent is FOGRAS27 here, but in the failed PDF the output intent is PSO Coated v3 (and so it should be). 

The preset PDF also pass Arobat’s default Verify Compliance with PDF/X-4 profile.

Helvetica is embedded in the failed PDF – but not in the preset PDF (exported to [PDF/X-4:2008] preset + no modification).

So, maybe the problems then have to do with the modifications – both the custom PDF-export (and the custom preflight (named NoK_v3), and the embedded system font Helvetica? 

[rob day]

Have you tried rebuilding the preset?

[M Cor]

No, I don’t have the technical know-how to rebuild the preset, or the permision I guess (I am a freelancer)… ; ) But I can advise the publisher and the prepress company that provided the presets for export and preflight, to review this. : )

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Do you get the problem if you export a default PDF/X-4 but modified with All Printer Marks turned on, and Output set to Convert to Destination?

[M Cor]

Thank you for your suggestion:

The PDF passes beautifully with zero problems when exported as ”default PDF/X-4 but modified with All Printer Marks turned on, and Output set to Convert to Destination”, as you showed me. 

Very helpful observation you made here:

”Also, in your failed preflight capture, the marks are listed as Registration Color Gray, but in a legal PDF/X the registration color space should be Separation, All.

This has come up before where the client is including marks but doesn’t want 4-color marks for cases where they might get charged more for 4-color pages.”

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Also, in your failed preflight capture, the marks are listed as Registration Color Gray, but in a legal PDF/X the registration color space should be Separation, All.

This has come up before where the client is including marks but doesn’t want 4-color marks for cases where they might get charged more for 4-color pages.

[rob day]

Also, I don’t think you mentioned your OS. On Mac OSX Helvetica TrueType is a required font—I can’t easily remove it. Have you confirmed that it is installed on your OS? On OSX the path is:  startup volume⁩ ▸ ⁨System⁩ ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Fonts⁩⁩ ▸ Helvetica.ttc

[M Cor]

My macOS is Sequoia 15.6.1. And yes, Helvetica.ttc is an active required fonts and it is in place (and so is HelveticaNeue.ttc).

Info about Helvetica.ttc: ”Embedding in preview and print. This font may be embedded in documents and temporarily loaded on the remote system. Documents containing this font must be opened as read-only – no edits may be made to the document.”