True text

[pdh]

The printers at KDP tell me I need to make sure that in my document "text is not converted to images and is, instead, true text on each page.

I do not really understand what they are saying. How do I make this happen?

My document is set on CYMK/8. I export to a pdf using (flatten). The document contains a lot of images, mostly images and some text.

They also said I need to "convert all of the text to 100% black and not Rich Black." I don't know how these two are related, so I put that into a separate topic.

Thanks.

[Dan C]

Hi pdh

1 hour ago, pdh said:

I export to a pdf using (flatten)

The Flatten option will rasterise the entire page, meaning the text will be converted to a pixel object and will no longer be 'true text' (ie editable)

I recommend using the PDF (for print) preset to export your document whilst retaining text. I hope this helps!

[pdh]

Thanks. I suspected that might be the case.

It looks like KDP recommends using PDF/X-1a export specifically (the document is set as CMYK/8. It has a lot of images and it is destined to be printed in paperback). So would this do the same as you are suggesting with PDF (for print)?

Could the PDF(flatten) export choice also be causing the blacks to be Rich Text rather than 100% Black?

[Dan C]

16 hours ago, pdh said:

So would this do the same as you are suggesting with PDF (for print)?

Give or take a few settings both presets will provide you with Text in your PDF, so there's no issue with using the X-1a preset

16 hours ago, pdh said:

Could the PDF(flatten) export choice also be causing the blacks to be Rich Text rather than 100% Black?

Unfortunately not, this usually occurs when there is a discrepancy between Colour profiles in your document and the one set at export. Could you please provide a copy of your Affinity Document so I can look into this for you?

[pdh]

It is a very long and large document. Will the 2 pages uploaded here suffice? Thanks for the help.

pgs 49 - 50 WIB to affinity forums.pdf

[Dan C]

I understand, unfortunately I require the Affinity Document as the exported PDF already has the colours converted.

I can see however that your PDF has been exported to a Greyscale colour space, not CMYK. This is why you aren't seeing a 100%K value for your text, as the colours are being converted at export.

Please open your Affinity document and (assuming you're in Publisher) go to File>Document Setup and change your Colour Format to CMYK here.

[pdh]

The Color Format is already set to CMYK/8 and U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2

So, I assume then that something else must be causing the colors to be converted at export?

If you need the entire document, is there a separate location I can send the large file to you using Wetransfer?

[Dan C]

Could you please upload a copy of your document to the following link -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/bdayZzOQmjJtNBoisGvy

Please also take a screenshot of your More... export settings and upload a copy of this here. Many thanks!

[pdh]

screenshot of More

[pdh]

Ok, the file has been uploaded.

[Dan C]

Thanks for your file, I can see the correct colour profile is now set against the document - however none of your text is defined at 100% K in the document, as can be seen here -

These values look like they've been converted from another colour space, where the text was set to 100% K, however when converting the values have to change to update with a new Colour Space/ICC profile.

The last text frame in the document (Page 249) actually has a gradient fill applied to the text -

You'll need to make sure all of your text is set to 0,0,0,100 before exporting if you want all text in pure K values only - I hope this helps.

[pdh]

Thank you for your help.

So, to do this I should select all blocks of text and then change its color profile to CMYK and then adjust the sliders to 0,0,0,100?

When you say the color profile is set against the document, do you mean that the document's color profile is set as one thing (CMYK) and the color profile of text is set at another (CMYK but the sliders are not at 0,0,0,100)?

 

[thomaso]

Color profile and color model are two pairs of shoes. Text has no profile but a color model. Its profile is the same like the documents profile (e.g. CMYK) but its color model can be RGB.

In the screenshot above you see the black "highlighted" lock icon next to the selected CMYK model. The lock is active and limits the panels model to the selected CMYK - regardless whether a color was really defined as CMYK. The shown values indicate that actually this black was set in a 3-color model, as for instance RGB, HSL, LAB:

To make sure your black is CMYK you need to click the lock (its black background disappears) and redefine the color if wanted as 100 K only and possibly save it as swatch.

Another option to assign true 100 K is to use the black icon of the 4 default icons ('none' included) in the Swatches panel: 

[pdh]

Thank you both very much. That was very helpful. I knew nothing about this. I believe this fixes my problem.

For my own education: how does this apply to photographs/images. I see that my images are set at CMYK and 6,5,5,0. The printer is not reporting any problem and they print out fine. I didn't set these numbers myself. How did they get set? And is there an optimal setting?

Thanks again.