Placing 2-color PDF results in 4-color process?

[lux_nunchucks]

Mac 10.3.9, CS1
Windows 2k, INDD v.2

I am putting together a 60 page catalog and have received a PDF from the client. The PDF is all black type, but the job prints 2-color. I started editing the PDF using Acrobat's text touch up tool to select a line of type, right click, select Properties, and recolor the line of type 100% magenta. I do not have Pitstop.

I then placed my recolored PDF pages into IND on the Mac. The PDF needs to be placed in a page layout program because of header graphics, footers, and page numbers. After I had placed about 4 pages of the PDF into my IND document, IND became painfully slow and ultimately became unresponsive and running in "slow motion". I made a new document and started over, and again it became unacceptably slow.

I took the PDF over to my Windows machine and made a new IND document and started the same process. It was fine and snappy, no problems. I then made a .ps file of a few pages out of IND, brought the .ps back to the Mac, distilled it, and upon checking Separation Preview discovered it had turned all the type into 4-color. So, the PDF I am using to place into IND is purely black and magenta (I even opened a page in Illy to verify the color breaks) but the PDF I am generating from IND (which is turning placed PDFs into a new PDF) is making everything process.

The only font used in the client's PDF is Times New Roman (regular, italic, bold), but is not embedded. I have Times New Roman on both my Mac and PC, but every time I place this PDF into IND I get a missing font warning. I did a test print to my laser printer and it printed okay - no Courier. But without Pitstop I don't really have a way to convert fonts in the PDF in one sweep - do I?

Short of saving the client PDF as an EPS and then opening each page (60 of them!) to recolor various lines of type, and then placing those EPS pages into IND ? do I have any other options? Any ideas?

[almaink]

Check your preferences for making the PDF. In the Advanced tab you have may have color set to CMYK, it should be set to leave unchanged.

[lux_nunchucks]

I just tried that - made sure color was set to Unchanged.

When I do Separation Preview in Acrobat for the resulting PDF, all the type is 4cp. When I open the same PDF in Illy, the magenta type is C=.78 M=95.29 Y=0 K=0 and the black type is 100% black.

I just tried the EPS workaround I mentioned, but that's not going to work. Fonts are missing and when I replace with my Times New Roman type kerning/tracking is coming out all wonky.

I'm going to go insane.

But without Pitstop I don't really have a way to convert fonts in the PDF in one sweep - do I?

What version of Acrobat do you have?.. If 7, then you can convert the text to outlines using a 0% watermark and the PDF optimizer under the Advanced Tab and then under transparency... then save as eps.

I took the PDF over to my Windows machine and made a new IND document and started the same process. It was fine and snappy, no problems. I then made a .ps file of a few pages out of IND, brought the .ps back to the Mac, distilled it, and upon checking Separation Preview discovered it had turned all the type into 4-color.

also check the settings in your distiller, if this is happening while distilling the .ps from the PC..

[lux_nunchucks]

Okay, this is working:

1. Recolor PDF within Acrobat.
2. Place PDF pages in INDD on the PC
3. Generate new PDF from INDD
4. Print PDF from Acrobat on Mac

Now it's separating correctly. I'm not saying another word about this.

I'm going to get a coffee and oatmeal cookie.

glad you got it. :P