Dave Dennis Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 I have tried everything to fix this issue, but my PDF files for book pages have an element that always somehow gets exported as cmyk black/grey. I have changed the document profile to grey (Greyscale D50), made sure the colour gradient is defined using only grey %, used cmyk with only black ink and numerous other tweaks. I even rasterised the shape and made sure it contained a Greyscale D50 profile for the embedded image. It keeps coming up on the publisher's system as cmyk black. I am using latest version Publisher (1.10.5) on Mac Big Sur (11.6.8) Any other thoughts about why this might be occuring are welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashf Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 Gray mode is treated as RGB, Photoshop does the same thing. You have to create the document in CMYK mode. Though I wish Affinity could export the gray mode document as a K only document. You can request the feature since it's not a bug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claidheamdanns Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 On 11/6/2022 at 8:04 PM, ashf said: Gray mode is treated as RGB, Photoshop does the same thing. You have to create the document in CMYK mode. Though I wish Affinity could export the gray mode document as a K only document. You can request the feature since it's not a bug. I've never had Photoshop treat Gray mode as RGB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashf Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 5 minutes ago, claidheamdanns said: I've never had Photoshop treat Gray mode as RGB. Try converting a grayscale image to CMYK. What do you get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claidheamdanns Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 3 minutes ago, ashf said: Try converting a grayscale image to CMYK. What do you get? I think that you are misunderstanding. We are talking about exporting here. If you export a grayscale Photoshop file as a PDF, you get a black channel only file, used for printing single color printing. If you export a grayscale AP file as a PDF, you get a CMYK file, which cannot be used for single color printing. That's what this entire post is about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashf Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 7 minutes ago, claidheamdanns said: If you export a grayscale Photoshop file as a PDF, you get a black channel only file, used for printing single color printing Using by which PDF profile? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Dennis Posted November 8, 2022 Author Share Posted November 8, 2022 11 minutes ago, claidheamdanns said: I think that you are misunderstanding. We are talking about exporting here. If you export a grayscale Photoshop file as a PDF, you get a black channel only file, used for printing single color printing. If you export a grayscale AP file as a PDF, you get a CMYK file, which cannot be used for single color printing. That's what this entire post is about. Yes, thank you for understanding and clarifying my point. What is the point of having a grayscale profile if it gets converted to rgb or cmyk? If I wanted colour I'd choose a colour profile. Perhaps the "big announcement" coming tomorrow will fix some of these basic 'duh' items. The other is slug area export for this like fold, die-cut and knife marks... (we wait in hope that Publisher might actually equal InDesign in functionality). claidheamdanns 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claidheamdanns Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 3 minutes ago, ashf said: Using by which PDF profile? I tried LOTS of different PDF export options, but I'm at home right now, so I can really check. I used PDF (press ready), with Color Space set to Gray, and Profile set to Generic Gray Gamma 2.2. I also think I tried pretty much every option that under there that seemed like it might lead to a true black only PDF. None of them worked. As one person said earlier on in this thread "it shouldn't be this hard to accomplish a basic task." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashf Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 5 minutes ago, claidheamdanns said: I tried LOTS of different PDF export options, but I'm at home right now, so I can really check. I used PDF (press ready), with Color Space set to Gray, and Profile set to Generic Gray Gamma 2.2. I also think I tried pretty much every option that under there that seemed like it might lead to a true black only PDF. None of them worked. As one person said earlier on in this thread "it shouldn't be this hard to accomplish a basic task." Just confirming, "black only" you mean is "K only" CMYK isn't it? not the 8 bit grayscale? Then you have to export a CMYK document to a CMYK PDF for the K only PDF. Neither of Affinity or Photoshop export a PDF that's K only CMYK from a grayscale document, I believe. Also you should uncheck the "embed profiles" on the export option if it's for printing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.