Expert: Neal Ziring - 10/4/2011

Question
The FM to PDF process will not convert my Pantone CMYK process colors accurately. Pantone within embedded art is correct, the same Pantone on FrameMaker text and bleed tab elements is getting converted to a different 4-color formula. I have used both the write to .ps and Save As PDF procedures. Convert to RGB is not checked and I have tried a variety of color processing options including leave color unchanged. I am aware this has been a problem for years on the PC (windows) versions 6 and 7. Has Adobe created new versions up to 10 and still not resolved this issue?

Answer
Patricia,

I'm not all that expert at color separations and color models, but I know this has been a long-term problem
for Framemaker on Windows for as long as I've been using it (since about version 4).  It was never an issue
back on our old Sun workstations running Unix :-).

I would not expect any difference between a Write-to-PS-and-Convert and a Save-As-PDF procedure.  I think
that both will (by default) convert the colors to RBG by the Windows GDI during print processing.  Data in
embedded EPS are passed through to the output Postscript untouched, so naturally those stay correct.
(As far as I can tell, this is really a Windows problem; Postscript and PDF can natively express CMYK
color, but Windows GDI cannot.)

Anyway, there is a fair amount of discussion on the various Adobe forums, but several of the discussions
seem to reference this article:

http://www.techknowledgecorp.com/help/color.html

as both informative and effective.  As far as I can tell from the article, you need to change a line
in the maker.ini file.  There is a bit more detail in this forum discussion:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1237968


Sorry I don't have a better answer for you.  Hope the advice in the article works for you.

...nz