Adobe Acrobat XI - Manual (Page 437)

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Printing
Last updated 1/14/2015
If you are using a print service provider to produce separations, you’ll want to work closely with its experts before
beginning each job and during the process.
To reproduce color and continuous-tone images, printers usually separate artwork into four plates—one plate for each
of the cyan (C), yellow (Y), magenta (M), and black (K) portions of the image. When inked with the appropriate color
and printed in register with one another, these colors combine to reproduce the original artwork. The process of
dividing the image into two or more colors is called color separating, and the films from which the plates are created
are called the separations.
Print color separations (Acrobat Pro)
Acrobat supports host-based separations and in-RIP separations. The main difference between them is where the
separations are created—at the host computer (the system using Acrobat and the printer driver) or at the output device’s
RIP.
For host-based separations, Acrobat creates PostScript information for each of the separations required for the
document and sends that information to the output device. For in-RIP separations, the work of separating a file is
performed by the RIP. This method often takes less time than creating host-based separations, but it requires a
PostScript 3 output device with in-RIP separation capability. To produce in-RIP separations, you need a PPD file that
supports in-RIP separations, and any PostScript 3 output device or a PostScript Level 2 device whose RIP supports in-
RIP separations.
Prepare to print separations
Before you print separations, do the following:
• Calibrate your monitor. See Calibrate and profile your monitor .
• Specify whether the document contains trapping information, if known. See Declare the presence of trapping
information (Acrobat Pro) .
• Preview separations and transparency flattening results. See Preview color separations and Preview which areas of
artwork will be flattened .
• Run preflight inspections using desired criteria. See Preflight profiles (Acrobat Pro) .
Note: If you use a print service provider to produce separations, you’ll want to work closely with its experts before beginning
each job and throughout the process.
Print separations
1 Choose File > Print, and choose a printer.
2 Choose an option from the Comments and Forms menu.
3 Choose print range and page handling options.