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Lala Lala
ParticipantHi again – thanks for having a look.
I wasn't actually looking to generate a whole swatch chart… just a few variations of a single color for the purposes of color matching (I have pantone swatches but they don't seem to play well with my printer, my results are way off, especially on coated paper.
So basically, let's say I get a label I have to duplicate with a particular shade of orange, I'd make a 1″ x 1″ orange square, starting with the pantone color that looks closest on screen, then step-and-repeat to make maybe 6 or 7 squares across. These squares would gradually change in some way I specify (e.g. adding 2% more black to each one, so the first square has zero black, last one 10%).
Then I'd print this and see which if my 6 squares came closest.
There may be situations where one row of 6 isn't enough, I might try on row with gradually increasing black, another with gradually increasing saturation, maybe one where I up both or decrease yellow or something.
I remember you were good with grep when I had questions about it, are you thinking this is something you can write?
ParticipantSecond vote for that last script, I find it very easy to use… there's a text file, you just throw a line into the text file, at the bottom. I think it would look something like:
grep {findWhat:”^(.)”} {changeTo:”~C$1″} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false}
Not sure if you would leave those quotes or not… but that's the gist of it.
ParticipantCheers, the images were the culprit. I have a placed PDF where part of its background image is masked. The PDF is just 150kb without the image. The image itself is under a meg also. The instant I put the masked image into the PDF in illustrator? Bam, 7.7 megs. It makes no sense.
So I just run the optimizer on these PDFs that eventually get placed, and my exported pdfs are under a meg now. Good enough.
Thanks again!
ParticipantHowdy David, thanks for the reply… well, I've toyed with the settings in that box. I thought originally it was keeping images at full resolution even after I shrunk them. A typical 1 page document for me might come out to be 5 megs as a pdf using default “High Quality Print” settings.
I modified those settings to reduce all images over 200 ppi to 200 ppi, and the result is a smaller PDF, but only a bit… say 4.8 megs. So I guess it's not the images. A fully optimized PDF of the same document is 400kb, and the images are still 200+ resolution.
So… anything I can do within that dialogue to come close to that 400kb result? Maybe a javascript plugin to export in a different way?
ParticipantI use this fantastic website to make all my barcodes. You automatically get both a jpg/png image and a vector EPS. I just open my EPS barcodes in illustrator and paste them into other applications as needed. It's free, but if you use it a lot, consider a donation:
https://www.terryburton.co.uk/b…..generator/
PS: It will accept 11 digit and automatically generate the 12th (“check digit”), or it will also accept 12 digits (and if the last digit is wrong, it will fix this). That's under “UPC-A” format. If you're using the newer GTIN-14 format, that's under “GS1-14”.
ParticipantPDF/X 1a looks is a pretty old specification. I believe they are up PDF/X 5+ now. Are you worried about backwards compatibility with old acrobat software? Or just having the printed version come out differently?
I'd try one of the newer specifications, PDF/X 3 maybe, and if you still get errors/warnings, just convert fonts to outlines. I've seen some debate about converting test to outlines but it really is the safest thing, and it especially makes sense if the amount of text is small and you're mostly talking about large fancy header fonts (vs plain body copy). Don't stop using nice-looking fonts :) I save my .indd file first, then outline everything, export to PDF, and close without saving. That way the indesign file remains editable later if you decide there's a problem with the PDF.
ParticipantI don't know either but I got a similar bug(?) recently… changing opacity of one item in a complex document caused the background color to change on screen. The thing is, it was a subtle shift (sort of like switching between CMYK and RGB in other adobe products). The basic color was correct, it just seemed to get muted. And the color panel said its color values were the same. I suspect it's just a visual bug and the actual printed color is identical either way… unless the shift you're seeing is more dramatic than what I'm describing?
ParticipantI can't be the only person with this workflow. I'd think pretty much everyone eventually PDFs their indesign files, and most people would want those PDFs optimized. I seem to remember a place where one can make suggestions to adobe, does anyone have a link?
August 15, 2011 at 8:20 am in reply to: How can I preview Indesign files I'm about to open (or in windows)? #60276ParticipantI'll try the minibridge thing, though do I need to install bridge to make it work?
I wish I could say I'm sold on bridge but it sounds like I can do all of that with windows explorer, except the preview.
ParticipantCheers for that idea therieau, it works well… the window stays at the same size all day. One less annoyance.
August 11, 2011 at 7:42 am in reply to: How can I preview Indesign files I'm about to open (or in windows)? #60260ParticipantGotcha. Well, appreciate the info guys. I'll probably just live without, I was hoping for being able to see the preview within windows or within the file–>open dialogue. I'll just name files more descriptively :p
August 11, 2011 at 7:22 am in reply to: How can I preview Indesign files I'm about to open (or in windows)? #60258Participantis Bridge very useful? I always felt like it must be some sort of bloated way over overcomplicating the process of opening files. I always skip it during a new install, should I bother with it?
ParticipantSometimes there's higher resolution available than what the default settings suggest. Try this – if it's win7, right click the desktop, screen resolution, advanced, list all modes. See if a hidden 1024×768 mode isn't available. I've also seen it suggested that if you uncheck the box that says “hide modes this monitor cannot display” (under monitor tab) you'll get other options. But I always thought that checkbox only applied to refresh rates. If you still don't see it, there's still hope. Get the latest graphic driver for your netbook, after installing it you may find new modes available. Also, it's possible there are different drivers available via intel's site vs. toshiba's.
Lastly, I found a registry hack for it:
ParticipantYup, single monitor only. I've seen other programs do something like that, but it's rare and usually just a fluke.
ParticipantCheers for the link. Do we know if adobe looks at this wishlist?
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