Printing PDF File from Book Module

[rcs100]

I am having a difficult time getting accurate color when printing a PDF Book file genetrated by the Book Module in LR4.

I've tried exporting the PDF with a Pro Photo profile, but when I open the file and try and print in Adobe Reader I can't figure out how to select an approriate output paper profile as is done in LR or Photoshop.  Doesn't seem to be a way to tell Adobe Reader to manage the color.  I can turn off having the printer manage the color, but have no idea what profile Adobe Reader is using when it sends the file to the printer.  I get somewhat accurate color but well off that produced by a direct LR print.

I've also tried exporting the PDF from the Book Module with the appropriate printer/paper profile chosen as the "Color Profile" (e.g. Canon iPF8300 Premium Semi-Glossy paper 2 280 (high)) and then printing from Adobe Reader with color management turned off in the printer and get decent color but still does not match up with the accurate colors produced by LR4 or CS5 using the same paper profile.  My guess is Adobe Reader is not just passing the file on but is changing something before sending to my iPF8300 printer.

Is there a more color aware program I can use to print these PDF's?  Am I missing something really obvious here?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Conrad

[Les Sparks]

Suggest you check out http://www.planetpdf.com/learningcenter.asp?ContainerID=1516 for several articles on color management in pdf.
Adobe's Acrobat Pro software also has color management options.
Les

[Nora_nor]

I have read an explanation from Adobe that one must use the professional Acrobat in order to print colour managed from Acrobat. Not the reader, or preview in mac.

Maybe it opens in photoshop?

[rcs100]

Thanks for the suggestions.  The referenced material was very useful, but seemed to confirm what I have found in other material on this subject, which is that the world of PDF's is a CMYK world, not an RGB world, so to speak.  Its all about pre-press and color separations, etc.  The idea of an RGB image being printed on an ink jet printer just seems to never be discussed.

I did install Acrobat Professional and gave it a try.  The print dialog screen of Acrobat Professional also lacks the capabilty of specifying that it should manage the color using a specified profile and not the printer.  I printed two different PDF Books from LR4, one created with the paper profile as the Color Space and one with sRGB as the Color Space.  In the Acrobat print dialog screen, I turned off color management by the printer in both cases and both came out poorly.

I then reprinted both books but did not turn off printer color management and both came out very close compared to direct LR prints from the iPF8300.  So I now know how to get a decent print from a PDF book, but its not very satisfying because I don't understand what is going on in the process and I lack the ability to know for certain what profile is being used to produce the prints.  Evidently Acrobat is not just passing along the image without doing anything anything to it, because if this were the case the PDF book that had the correct paper profile used in creating it would have come out correctly when it was printed with printer color management off, which it didn't do.  So Acrobat does something to the file but the printer seems to deal with it when it has its color management turned on.

I have googled this topic numerous times and remain surprised at the almost total lack of information regarding the issue of RGB printing to an ink jet printer from a PDF.  Is it that PDF's are almost 100% used in the CMYK space of proof prints and offset printing, and that when they are printed on an inkjet its typically an office environment where the print button is simply clicked with no thought given to color management , etc.? I wonder if LR4 converts the images from RGB to CMYK when its produces a PDF book?

Thanks again for the help.

Conrad

[Rand47]

Try opening the PDF in photoshop.  It sould load as separate pages.  See if you can print from there, color managed.

[rcs100]

Opening in CS5 does the trick!  Each image had the expected color profile and printing was perfect.

Last challenge I face is to figure out how to automate the printing in CS5 to avoid opening each page individually and then printing it for say, a 100 page book.  The CS5 dialog for the PDF does allow all the images to be selected so I could end up with 100 images open at once if I try to open the whole book with one click.  Would guess this would run into some sort of problem.  If I could figure out an efficient way to get each page opened and then saved into a folder its easy to do an action to print all images in a folder.

Any thoughts on a good way to get at printing the whole PDF book at once through CS5?

Thanks so much,

Conrad

[rcs100]

I have just answered my own question.  If you use Bridge and select the PDF Book it will open all the pages and allow all of them to be selected for printing at once with proper color management.

Thanks again for all the help.

Conrad

[Rand47]

You're welcome.  I've not printed a book PDF, but I have printed multipage graphics/images/maps.  I figured it would probably work the same way.

Rand

[Nora_nor]

How do you solve the issue of printing on both sides of the paper (on double-sided paper) ?
(for albums (Hahnemuhle) where you fix the sheets with screws after printing)
I have a picture book project I would like to print on both sides, and was thinking about saving each page as a jpg and printing manually.