Imagine doing your shopping like this: When you ask for an item’s price, you’re told to wait until you see what’s billed to your credit card. This would be unacceptable. But we don’t have this problem. Retailers and the fi nance industry have agreed on a standard for recording and tracking the exchange.

Without a standard—and more importantly, implementation of the standard—shopping would be chaos. This is where we are with exchanging colormanaged documents. But there’s hope for salvation.

If you’ve been following this series, you know there are quite a few steps that need to be completed to set up a color-managed workflow. Now we’re at the final step. We have set up our system and applications. Next we want to create a digital file that can be exchanged with a printer, a file that contains both the content and the “color intent” of what the designer hoped to achieve.

From the perspective of a printer, the end game for reliable color management is to receive a PDF document that not only represents content but also displays how the page is to appear.

We’re all familiar with PDF (Portable Document Format) files. These are cross-platform files created in Adobe Acrobat Distiller or other applications like InDesign. The beauty of a PDF is its compactness and reliability. But a standard PDF file can contain instructions that will muddy the waters in a prepress environment. PDF/X, the subsequent development in this technology, is a more restricted form of PDF specific to the prepress world. It’s tailored for CMYK and spot colors, and excludes certain features like RGB images that would hamper its use by a printer.

PDF/X-3 is a variant of the above that, in addition, supports the LAB and ICC color profiles discussed in previous articles. It makes possible a fully color-managed workflow from creation all the way through final output. InDesign CS and Quark XPress 6.0 and up support PDF/X-3 file creation natively, but almost any application can be coaxed into creating a PDF/X-3 file if it’s printed to PostScript and processed using the PDF/X-3 filter that’s included with the more recent versions of Acrobat Distiller.

Creating a PDF/X-3 file is only one step in a complex process, though. To view the resulting file you will need to set up your display to present it through another filter, an ICC device-linked output profile that will simulate how the file will print.

If there is one thing I hope you take away from this discussion, it’s that you’ll have to work closely with your publisher or printer in order to accomplish a fully color-managed workflow. Even though the PDF/X-3 standard exists, not many have acquired the technology or “bought into” the concept enough to implement it. Yes, the promise is great, but today’s reality is that we’re metaphorically back in the time before credit cards and ATM machines.

This final step is more revolution than evolution. I hope you agree it is time we eliminate “surprises” with color. You—yes, you—are going to have to demand for this standard to happen.

This author wishes you luck … no, persistence. There was a time when I felt our industry would never embrace color management. But now we find ourselves in a place where we can’t move ahead without it. Analog proofs consume time and costs we can’t afford, to say nothing of the pain that occurs when color doesn’t turn out as expected. The time for change is now—and this revolution will be color-managed!

Tips for Adobe CS applications
For more on setting up a color-managed workflow in Adobe InDesign CS, Photoshop CS, and Illustrator CS, check out www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/ 329486.html.

Need to cut to the chase? You may be among those who prefer to jump in and start doing onscreen proofing without the learning curve of setting up your own workflow. If so, you can simply buy a system or contract with a service provider who can fill the bill. Here are a few options:

Kodak Polychrome Graphics’ Matchprint Virtual Proofing System reproduces color with such a degree of accuracy that many printers keep it press-side. This SWOP-certified system offers contractquality display-based proofs. See more at www.kpgraphics.com/news/pr_2004/ipa_ mvp.html.

Remote Director is a monitor-based, contract soft-proofing system that applies color management accurately to allow elimination of hard proofs or overnight delivery charges. See www.icscolor.com.

RR Donnelley & Sons Co. offers ShareStream, a SWOP-certified softproofing system that provides work groups online access from the creative concepting stage through page edits, color retouching, and final page inspection. See if it’s right for your organization at www.premediatechnologies.com/ShareStream_demo/codebase.html.