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Can't Save .pdf as CMYK for Professional Printing


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Hello,

I am giving the desktop free trial software a go, but I am running into a major problem. I appreciate any input you may provide. 

I made a sample business card to be produced via Allied Media (alliedmedia.com). I wanted to include a photo in the design, and know that print documents need to be CMYK. 

I opened the photo in Affinity Photo and converted it to CMYK, then saved it as a .jpg. The .jpg color profile reads as CMYK under "get info" on my mac.

Then, I placed the photo into my Affinity Designer file to size (the document is CMYK color space).  

Then, I exported it as a .pdf - required document format for Allied Media uploads (my export settings under "more" all read CMYK).

I uploaded the file, and Allied media tells me it contains a non-CMYK image. Am I doing something incorrectly? 

Just to test, I set up another document in Adobe Illustrator and inserted the image I converted to CMYK in Affinity Photo. I exported the .pdf and uploaded it to Allied Media, it uploads just fine - reading as CMYK photo. 

Thank you for your help! 

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Hi  DanaCP,
Welcome to the forums :)

Could you please provide us with a copy of your .afdesign file and .jpg so we can take a look into this for you? If you don't wish for the file to be public you can send me a direct message with the file through my profile.

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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Hi Dan, Thank you for replying. 

Attached please find my .afphoto file, the .jpg I saved as a result, my .afdesign file, and then the final .pdf. 

I just can't seem to figure out what is going wrong. I will attach the screen cap from my upload attempt also with the warning message from Allied Media.

Thank you so much for your help, I do a lot of small print jobs like business cards, rack cards and brochures and would LOVE to be able to integrate Affinity software into my workflow.  

- Dana

Alaska1.afphoto

Alaska1.jpg

Sample.pdf

AlaskaTrial.afdesign

Screen Shot 2018-07-15 at 1.50.11 PM.png

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Thanks for those sample files Dana.
The PDF you have uploaded is showing as CMYK according to Acrobat pro, but interestingly enough it's colour space is a 'generic profile' which it shouldn't be.

image.thumb.png.dbe678d0088b4ea7568e466b50f73566.png

When I open your document in Designer, I receive the following notification:

image.png.b1c11d8c669eb4aa1c33739c4859dbe7.png

It appears as though your documents colour space is not being correctly set or saved with the document. If you open Document Setup in Designer and switch to the Colour tab, what is showing as your Colour Format and Profile?
I've re-exported your image from Designer after my document was automatically assigned the correct colour space, setting the export options to PDF (for print) preset. The colour space does not need changing in the export options as it will automatically use the documents colour space. Could you check my below PDF on Allied? :)
AlaskaTrial.pdf

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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Hi Dan,

This is a mystery to me... I uploaded your .pdf to Allied Media: https://www.alliedmediastore.com/business-cards

and it gives me the same result - screen cap below - regarding a "Non CMYK image being detected."  

I did go back and check the color tab under Document Settings in my original file - I am attaching a screen cap of this also. I know you said it doesn't need to read "Generic CMYK Profile" - should the color profile read "U.S. Web Coated" instead? (I tried a version with "U.S. Web Coated" and received the same result...)

I also tried saving from Affinity Photo, to see what would happen. I get the same message unfortunately about Non CMYK images...

Thank you for your continued assistance,

Dana

Screen Shot 2018-07-16 at 9.29.52 AM.png

Screen Shot 2018-07-16 at 9.28.58 AM.png

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I too am still receiving the same error. I've checked every setting and even tried forcing ICC profiles on export, from Photo and then moved through to Designer, including converting to a different colour space, then back to CMYK and rasterising the layer. No matter what, Allied Media will not detect the profile correctly, however I believe this is down to their software and not our export.
In each of my tests, as I've shown above, various different programs show both the image and the PDF to be the correct colour space.

Irfan Viewer: image.thumb.png.1394f4db3ec42741443852e5da7f8fd6.png

Acrobat Pro: image.thumb.png.e991b143ea30d6468c0bf84e89c416b6.png

Illustrator: image.thumb.png.2ef11936734c9e106f366d0e22e86c97.png

And Affinity Designer opening the PDF: image.thumb.png.0a5b4f773c3eb08762930776ec9759a3.png

 

I've got no idea why Allied Media is not detecting this as CMYK, as in every other instance it is being read correctly. I'd recommend using Affinity Photo to export your image as a JPEG (checking you've set up CMYK of course!) and then using Allied's Design studio. Instead of uploading a PDF you can select 'Design Now' and use a blank template of theirs, upload your image and crop it, then arrange on the card as you wish!

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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Thank you Dan, 

I fired off an email to Allied Media to try and get to the bottom of this. It really seems like a problem on their end... but what is really making me scratch my head is the fact that it will accept a .pdf exported from Illustrator just fine with the same exact image edited and saved from Affinity Photo. So frustrating... I am curious to see what they say. 

Thank you again,

Dana

 

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4 minutes ago, MikeW said:

Export without embedding the profile

Of all the options I tried, I hadn't considered disabling the embedding as other software was able to read it correctly... how strange! Thanks MikeW, I'll look into why this might be happening :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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The pdfs from AD with an embedded profile pass preflight at other vendors. You're not clipping images in a mask that is set to rgb like another software I use has done in the past. So I don't think there's an issue with AD.

I think that their system cannot deal with profiles and or a profile that they don't use. I didn't fully look at their website to see if they specify any profile.

Also, if one uses AI's default export it is a pdf with pdf compatibility 5 without a document profile...if I recall properly. 

Likely one could upload an rgb pdf without an embedded profile too. Most online sites accept them.

Mike

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Dana, 

Several years ago I purchased a license for PagePlus from Serif due to both its capabilities and my pre-sales emails to their tech support. 

I believe that Serif's engagement with their customers is upstanding. Their example of support affects most users to follow their lead and this makes the entire community so much the better.

Glad it's resolved. Happy designing! 

Mike 

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