ICC color profile on exported CMYK PDF?

[EssentialParadox]

So I have a CMYK document in Affinity Photo on iPad that I have set to the profile US Web Coated (SWOP) V2 and when I exported this to a PDF, in the export menu I set the Color Space to Use Document and the ICC Profile was set to Use Document Profile.

However I’ve run into an issue with colors looking off with the proof returned by my printing company who’ve told me, “the PDF is set up in ICC color profile which isn’t fully CMYK”.

How do I change the document to be ‘fully CMYK’? I thought if I was exporting to respect the document profiles it would work fine?

Unfortunately I’m unable to double check the color profile that’s embedded in the PDF for myself (I don’t believe there’s a way to do this on iPads at the moment?), but I’ve uploaded the PDF export if anyone was able to confirm how it’s set up.

I can’t tell if this is something I’m doing wrong or Affinity Photo is doing wrong?

2020 Menu Inside.pdf

[Dan C]

Hi @EssentialParadox,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

I can see your PDF is using 2 different profiles, depending on the images. Some are using the US Web Coated SWOP V2 profile, whereas others are using a Greyscale profile -

Can you please provide a screenshot of your PDF export settings from within Affinity so I can investigate this further?

[EssentialParadox]

Thanks Dan! Screenshot attached.

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for providing that!

Can you please try exporting using the PDF/X-1a:2003 preset, then provide a copy of the exported PDFD file here for me?

Hopefully, this should force CMYK to be used throughout the file 

[EssentialParadox]

Hey @Dan C,

Apologies for the long response, it was a long weekend here.

Exported a version with that preset and attached below.

Does this mean I should use this preset for exporting print materials rather than using the ‘PDF for Print’ preset?

2022 Menu Inside.pdf

[Dan C]

Thanks for providing that for me!

I can confirm that this PDF is using the CMYK profile only, and the Grey profile images have been converted as expected.

22 hours ago, EssentialParadox said:

Does this mean I should use this preset for exporting print materials rather than using the ‘PDF for Print’ preset?

Yes, I would certainly recommend this option over the "(for print)" preset, as PDF/X1 is the industry standard for most professional printing companies

[EssentialParadox]

That’s great, thanks for checking, Dan!

I will start using that other preset. Although I do wonder whether the “PDF for Print” preset could be renamed or clarified in some way with just a small explanation of what its use is.