Exporting a 2 color Pantone PDF from QuarkXpress. Default is always 4 colors CMYK.

Exporting spot color separations from QuarkXpress documents to PDF

How do I export a Quark file as a spot color PDF? Whenever I try I always seem to create a 4 color CMYK document instead.

As ever, there are numerous ways to achieve the above goal and much may depend on how the printer prefers their PDFs to be produced. The process may also vary depending on the version of QuarkXpress and Acrobat.

The first thing to consider is which method of producing the PDF is preferable. Some people will swear by outputting a PostScript file using Acrobat Distiller, whilst other designers may be happy to use Quark's PDF export feature, which is the method that we will be using here.

Please note that Adobe Acrobat has numerous settings and file export formats that we will not be addressing in this tutorial. We are concerned here primarily with producing a spot color separated PDF file. This method should work with QuarkXpress versions 6 and 7, although the dialogue boxes may be laid out slightly differently.

Producing two color plates for PDF from Quark;

1. First check in the QuarkXpress color palette that the Pantone ink is a spot solid color and not separated CMYK.
2. Once you are happy with that, go to export the file as a PDF.
3. For version 6, click on 'Options' and, under Job Options, make sure that all fonts are embedded and subset fonts below 100%. For version 7, the fonts have their own index item in the export options dialogue box. Simply select 'All'.
4. Now the important bit!, For Quark 6, click on the Output tab and for 'Print Colors' select 'As Is', (not CMYK). Once again Xpress 7 has its own colors listing the export dialogue.
5. Select your bleed and registration marks settings, if you have any elements that are bleeding off the edge of the page.
6. Then click OK and save the PDF.

Once finished, it is always a good idea to check to see that the PDF file has separated properly. This can be done either by printing hard copy separations, or by opening the document up in Acrobat and using the Output Preview tool. And, just to repeat our mantra, it's always best to check with the pre press bureau or the printer.

QuarkXpress 7 PDF export options dialogue box.