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Color changes in PDF print


cpriedel

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Hi,

i seached the Forums for an answer already with no luck. So please forgive me when this has been answered before.

 

Here is my problem:

When I print a drawing to our plotter (hp desinjet 1050C) or to a pdf with the same .ctb file, both drawings seem to be ok.

But when I print that same pdf. on our plotter the screening (especially color #96) seems to be much darker than on the screen or on the drawing that got printed driectly form AuoCad to the plotter.

 

Any ideas why this is happening or suggestions on how to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

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Ah, too easy! That most likely relates to the DPI of the file being sent to the plotter vs the Adobe PDF.

 

Not sure on the specifications of the DJ 1050C, but it is most likely at least 300DPI. As such, the driver will send it to the plotter accordingly. In the PDF writer, you can control the DPI output in the Page Setup.

 

Select your Plotter (in this case Adobe PDF) and hit the Properties Button. Next choose the Custom Properties in the top section, choose the Custom Properties button at the bottom. In the resultant Dialog, choose advanced and you will see the Print Quality in DPI (usually 72 DPI to suit screen resolution). Set this to match your plotter. On the way out it will ask if you want to save this for this plot only or permanently to the relevant PC3 file - choose the save it option or you'll be doing it again next time.

 

Hope that is it... By the way, you will find that the increase in resolution will increase the resultant file size too, so sometimes it's a balance between file size and quality for emailing it out.

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Thanks AlinOz, that sounded so good. :(

Unfortunately it doesnt seem to make a difference weather I plot to pdf with 1200dpi or 300 dpi and than plot it to the Designjet. The color is the same on both (way to dark).

Do you have any idea where i can find out how much DPI the Designjet put out on default?

Maybe knowing the exact number would make a differenz?

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cpriedel, I've been over to the HP website (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-18972-3328061-12600-3328078-24023-12607-33259.html) and here's the page for the specifications of the DJ 1050C. You will see that it is capable of 600DPI. That being said, this can be controlled by the Plotter Driver, so you should check in there too to see what your actually plotting output resolution is.

 

The only other things I can suggest are:

1. make sure you are using the same CTB file for both plot devices

2. Get into the advanced settings of the PDF Driver from Page Setup and change the 'Postscript output option' to EPS. This will make bigger files but should be a direct translation from the drawing. The optimize options may be fudging it a bit and not giving you the expected results

 

There may be other settings that the Adobe driver may have that may also assist but as I don't use the Adobe driver, I can't test it out. If you don't have any joy, another PDF driver may be the answer for plotting PDFs.

 

I have used PDF995 before without any issues (you'll just get a Nag screen after 30 days) and it is so simple. Currently I'm using Primo PDF and it's got my vote because it is free and allows you to control the output on its way to the file (no Nag screen) http://www.primopdf.com/

 

The only downside (to a few people) to these PDF printer drivers is that neither will handle Layers within the PDF. Basically I like to think of a PDF as an electronic version of a Hard Copy - you can't muck around with layers in a Hard Copy, so why would I want the recipient to muck around with Layers. Sorry Adobe - you've spent a lot of time putting in a feature that you thought was useful but in actual fact is useless in the real world.

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Hey, hold on a tick... Has Autodesk finally relented and admitted that DWF will never take over from PDF? I have just downloaded the Bonus Pack 2 for AutoCAD 2009 from Autydesk and it is all PDF based - Insert PDFs within the XREF interface, control them through Properties and even plot PDFs with all the appropriate controls (Layers too if you want that).

 

Are you on subscription? If you are, that may be your solution??? We can test it out together:D If you aren't on subscription, you may just need to wait until 2010:(

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ohhhh how nice... I just checked it out on the autodesk website.

Yes we are on subscripton but also very busy atm. So it may take me some time to get the bonus pack downloaded. Deadlines have priority hehe. Ill probably will be able to test it in like 2 weeks and will keep you posted how it works for me.

Thanks again :)

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