[pdftex] pdflatex, PDF/X and late binding - is there way to specify profile for solid colour?

[Andrzej Giniewicz]

Hi,

> If you tell us what company on what side of the pond you are using we can be
> more helpful. I also suggest that since you are laying out the book yourself
> in some form of TeX that you deal directly with the printer rather than
> going through a "self publishing company" (AKA subsidy publisher.) Perhaps
> you are doing that already with e.g., LSI. It is hard for me to guess from
> the information you provide.
>
> Finally I suggest you work in CMYK as early as possible rather than as late
> as possible. You will get more predictable results if you do the conversion
> to CMYK and not the printer.
>
> I have printed via LSI, Createspace, Lulu and 360 Digital Books. Most U.S
> subsidies use either LSI or Createspace. Infinity has their own presses.
>
> Lulu does color work through I think Colorgraphics. I use 360 Digital Books
> for color interiors. They have an advanced press that allows them to charge
> me color rates only for those pages requiring color.
>
> LSI for color interiors requires PDF X/1-a:2001 standard and other vendors
> (Createspace, 360 Digital Books) will accept it without complaint. I have
> never found any printer that prefers X/3. In Europe things are different.

Well, it's Createspace I was talking about. While going trough their
page I found that they recommend PDF version 1.3 and PDF/X while they
did not forced any specific version of PDF/X standard. Each time I
asked their support about colour profile they tell to use AdobeRGB
images in file because they cannot specify the profile one should pick
as they have multiple devices. That's how I deduced this must be
PDF/X-3:2002, because in PDF/X-1a (which I'd actually prefer to use
over PDF/X-3 as it's more widely used) one cannot use RGB images which
are recommended at their side. Any newer (even PDF/X-3:2003 wouldn't
meet their requirements about PDF 1.3, any lower about RGB images).
This might be of course due to not so skilled email support staff, but
more people say same stuff about "keeping images in AdobeRGB for best
results" - seems more people asked and got same answer.

Anyway, you actually recommend using some more random profile, not
necessarily correct for specific printer and let them convert using
Device Link profile (I guess) over the workflow recommended by them?

Thanks,
Andrzej.