K PDFs counted as color

[Synaux]

This might not be a great topic for here, but here I am.

PDFs are being printed as color on the meter. This is occurring on c654s and older KM dinosaurs. This is no good for all the obvious reasons.

Auto-Color needs to be selected as some pages do have color. I tried several different pdf programs. For example, when printing ~1500 sheets only 24 counted as K hits, but the documents are probably 95% B/W.

Anyone? Thanks as always!

[qbert69]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

This might not be a great topic for here, but here I am.

PDFs are being printed as color on the meter. This is occurring on c654s and older KM dinosaurs. This is no good for all the obvious reasons.

Auto-Color needs to be selected as some pages do have color. I tried several different pdf programs. For example, when printing ~1500 sheets only 24 counted as K hits, but the documents are probably 95% B/W.

Anyone? Thanks as always!

Is it true black or is it process (C,M,Y) black??? Is there a sensitivity adjustment in the print driver to bias the detection either towards true black/grayscale or the opposite direction of process (C,M,Y) black/ grayscale???[emoji848]

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

Is it true black or is it process (C,M,Y) black??? Is there a sensitivity adjustment in the print driver to bias the detection either towards true black/grayscale or the opposite direction of process (C,M,Y) black/ grayscale???[emoji848]

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk

Yeah, I'd look at the print thru a loop for any color in the print and maybe use that color analyzer that blackcat was talking about.

That may help determine if you're printing in true black or CMY.

[KenB]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

Other issues can come into play, too.

For instance, duplex or N-Up printing can cause pages to be color clicks, be they color or not. That’s because it’s impossible to switch developing units in the middle of a print.

I ran into that with both Ricoh and Canon machines.

I also remember that .jpg images in a PDF will usually be color clicks.

Don’t forget that even one measly pixel of color, even if invisible, will be counted as color. As Billy mentioned, take a look at the pages in question with software that will tell you if there is any color or not.

How were the PDFs created? It may be possible to make some settings there. If you have Acrobat (NOT Reader) there is a plug-in called PitStop Pro that can substitute RGB or CMYK colors with varying degrees of K. Note: PitStop Pro has a trial version (last I knew) but it’s really pricey, but could be worth it if the numbers are right.

Are there different drivers for that model you can try? Years ago, the Ricoh propriety driver (RPCS) was less likely to count color than the PCL or PS. As Qbert mentioned, there may be some compensations in the driver.

[KenB]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

It may be a last resort, or totally unacceptable, but what about printing the BW pages all together in BW mode, printing the color pages together, then manually assembling the document? It’s been done.

Of course, depending on finishing, that may not work...not to mention snarking off the folks who create and print the documents, and their time, which is never “free”.

Given the cost differential between BW and color, it may be worth the inconvenience.

[Synthohol]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

try printing from foxit reader. Free PDF Reader & PDF Viewer Download | Foxit Software
adobe is the devil.
foxit properly separates the k from c pages and clicks appropriately.
works every time.
my .02

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: K PDFs counted as color



Why are my B&W pages being counted as color when duplexing a 2 page document where page one is color and page 2 is B&W

No matter if you are duplexing or not, color should only click when there is color on the page. Many people overlook color information in what seems to be a B&W document. For instance, in an Imposed document, check under "Marks". Marks can be configured as B&W or CMYK. Crop marks in your document can cause your seemingly B&W page to click color. You can also go into Mixed Media and set a page range and set that page to grayscale. Also, a 4 color black will cause the document to print in color. To fix that, go into "Color" and set the document to grayscale.

[tsbservice]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

Is it true black or is it process (C,M,Y) black??? Is there a sensitivity adjustment in the print driver to bias the detection either towards true black/grayscale or the opposite direction of process (C,M,Y) black/ grayscale???[emoji848]

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk

Good point I will second that.
Check tab Convert to Grey Scale and play with threshold values. Let us know.

[Blizzoo]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

This might not be a great topic for here, but here I am.

PDFs are being printed as color on the meter. This is occurring on c654s and older KM dinosaurs. This is no good for all the obvious reasons.

Auto-Color needs to be selected as some pages do have color. I tried several different pdf programs. For example, when printing ~1500 sheets only 24 counted as K hits, but the documents are probably 95% B/W.

Anyone? Thanks as always!

I had a situation once on a Toshiba MFP where customer was complaining that they are charged for color clicks even when they sent the pdf job to be printed 'Grayscale'. All of the users had department codes an they could easily notice the fault when checking their individual counter list. They all printed from Mac's.

What I've noticed straight away was that when they sent the job to be printed, instead of choosing the job colour option within the print driver printing preferences they ticked the 'Grayscale' within the PDF print settings and for some reason all the 'grayscale' pages were counted as colour. Simply setting up the colour properties withing the print driver printing preferences solved this issue. Even Auto-Color worked as it should be in this way.

[KenB]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

You can plainly see from all the offered suggestions that there is no "one size fits all solution" to this issue.

It may take some experimentation to find out which works best.

[Synaux]

Re: K PDFs counted as color

Thanks everyone.

After some digging I found "convert gray text to postscript gray" & "convert gray graphics to postscript gray" in printer properties -- which did not work.

Acrobat was one of the problems. Foxit Worked. PDF-Xchange had mixed results. That is as far as I got.

Another observation is that Corel Draw x6 is set to output in the color tab as CMYK so even if there is only grayscale (8 bit) or K (1bit) in the document it still counts as a color hit with auto-color enabled.