HELIOS PDF Handshake 2.0 User manual

8 Editing pre-separated PDF documents

PDF Handshake offers a plug-in that can be used to manipulate the separation plate information in a pre-separated PDF document. The plug-in is called "HELIOS Plate Control".

Note: The plug-in requires Acrobat Exchange 3.0 (or later) for Macintosh PPC, it does not work with Acrobat Reader. Companies with a PDF Handshake license, as e.g. printing houses, may distribute the plug-in free of charge to their customers to allow them to create PDF documents that are ready for production.

The manipulation/correction of plate color information in a pre-separated document may be necessary for example if separated PostScript files with Pantone colors are distilled by Acrobat Distiller 3, because the Distiller cuts all color names at the first blank. The resulting PDF file will contain several "Pantone" plates with the rest of the name being missing. You can then use the plug-in to complete the plate color names.

To open the "HELIOS Plate Control" dialog, choose Tools and HELIOS Plate Control from the Acrobat Exchange main menu as shown in Fig. 26.

In case the PDF document is a composite document, the plug-in will issue a warning. Nevertheless, you will be able to open the dialog.

Fig. 26: Opening the "HELIOS Plate Control" dialog

"HELIOS Plate Control" comes up with a list window (compare Fig. 27). It shows the following information for each page in the document:

• The PDF page number.
• The page number in the original composite document. The correct composite page numbers are important if you intend to export the document as a PostScript file for use with an imposition software (see chapter 11 "Export for Imposition with EtherShare OPI" below) or if you are using Print Preview, which must rely on the data to create a correct composite preview.
• The name of the plate color. This name is necessary to make sure that the correct screening settings (angle and frequency) can be applied later. Moreover, the plate color name is needed for the composite preview.
• CMYK values for the plate color. These values are also needed by Print Preview for correct color previews.

  Fig. 27: The "HELIOS Plate Control" list window

If you click an item on the list Acrobat will automatically go to the corresponding PDF page and display this page in the background. Click Edit... to manipulate separation plate information as shown in Fig. 28.

Fig. 28: Editing separation plate information

You can enter a new Composite Page Number in case the page assignment in the PDF file was wrong and the plate belongs to another composite page.

The pop-up menu in the Edit dialog contains all plate color names that occur in the document. You can use the pop-up menu if you want to assign a plate color name that already exists. In that case, you do not need to enter the plate color name manually in the Plate Color text field.

Important: Ensure that, if you are not using process colors (CMYK) from the pop-up menu, other plate colors have the same name, spelling and case sensitivity as previously defined in the DTP-application.

The pop-up menu also contains an entry called (None) on top of the list (compare Fig. 29). (None) can be used to remove a plate color assignment.

Please note that (None) should not be applied to neither of the single PDF pages in a pre-separated document because this would induce PDF Handshake to regard the document as a composite document. However, the (None) option can be used in composite PDF files to undo plate color assignments that have been entered by accident.

Fig. 29: The plate color pop-up menu

If you want to edit a certain plate color and then replace it with another within the whole document, click Replace... to open the dialog as shown in Fig. 30.

Fig. 30: Replacing plate color information

From the pop-up menu, select the plate color you want to replace and specify the desired plate color name in the Plate Color field of the Replace With section of the dialog. Additionally you can modify the CMYK values in the respective fields.

For all spot colors in the file you should enter the corresponding CMYK values in the dialog. This allows for example Print Preview to produce correct color previews of the particular document.

In the Pages section specify All if you want to apply the plate color replacement to the whole document, or merely to a range of separation pages.

You have also the possibility to define a sequence of plate colors for the PDF document. This avoids that you have to repeat the given order of the plate colors for each composite page in case you have to handle a document with many pages.

In the list window click on the Fill... button. A new window (see Fig. 31) opens.

Fig. 31: Defining Fill pattern

Specify the plate colors in order of their appearance in the field and separate them either by commas or line breaks. If you want to leave an already existing plate color unchanged enter an asterisk (*). Again you can specify All if you want to apply the fill pattern to the whole document, or merely to a range of separation pages. Then click the OK button.

Figure 32 shows the "HELIOS Plate Control" list window after the plate colors have been sequentially assigned to the separation pages.

Fig. 32: "HELIOS Plate Control" list window filled by pattern