* FH PDF Printer Settings

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Senelstune

FH PDF Printer Settings

Post by Senelstune »

I am close to having a book published. It has been created using FH. It contains many diagrams and charts in colour.

However I am told that FH creates a PDF file wherein the B&W pages of text are in fact CYMK colour which prints as black and looks like black, but for the purpose of the printing machines, they are colour pages, using colour ink to print them, so they would be charged as colour. So, that makes a big difference to me.

Any advice in how to get around this problem ?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

john
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Jane
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Re: FH PDF Printer Settings

Post by Jane »

Have you tried going into the Nova settings (File>Printer Setup) and options and selecting the greyscale options.
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Jane
My Family History : My Photography "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
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tatewise
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Re: FH PDF Printer Settings

Post by tatewise »

The problem may be more difficult to resolve than you realise.
I presume your printed book will have printing on both sides of the pages.
Pages in books usually print an early page on the same sheet of paper as a later page.
So for example in an 8-page booklet there are only two sheets of paper:
1st sheet has pages 1 & 8 on one side and pages 2 & 7 on the other.
2nd sheet has pages 3 & 6 on one side and pages 4 & 5 on the other.
When folded and bound together the pages run from 1 through 8 as normal.

I believe that if any one of the 4 pages on a sheet needs colour the print process must use colour for all 4 pages.
So to minimise costs I suspect you'll have to rearrange pages so whole sheets of 4 pages are either all colour or all B&W.
Then you could produce a PDF in colour and one in B&W (Grayscale) so the printer can merge pages in groups of 4.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Martin Tolley
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Re: FH PDF Printer Settings

Post by Martin Tolley »

I am involved with the production and printing of a small scale newsletter, and I submit finished versions as PDF, but we are almost always only producing stuff in greyscale. We sometimes have colour material (as covers or centre page sections), and printing colour can be fraught with difficulties. Maybe you can separate the colour material from the remainder and have that printed as a separate section or additional booklet?
I think the best solution with these things is to take your problem to a local printer and ask their advice about the best way to produce your material. They will almost always want to do the best job they can for you and may be able to suggest alternative formats for you. It may be too late for you to change your design and production process, but for anyone thinking about producing printed book form materials I think it's wise to talk through printing options and potential costs with a hands-on printer before producing "the magnum opus" - professional book printing and production can be a very tricky technical process. There are some excellent firms working on-line, but these generally only offer a bespoke series of options which may not be flexible enough to suit everyone's needs.
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tatewise
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Re: FH PDF Printer Settings

Post by tatewise »

I totally agree with Martin. I also publish a quarterly magazine submitted to the print company in PDF but only in grayscale. Discussions with the company have yielded benefits and some simple changes have streamlined the process.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Senelstune

Re: FH PDF Printer Settings

Post by Senelstune »

Thank you Jane, Mike and Martin.

In the end, I have had to go with the "as is" situation, as none of the proposed solutions (for which I thank each of you) has worked for me - the printer company does not have the technology to solve this issue either.

Many thanks anyway. Much appreciated.

j
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