Thanks, Pablo, I fully understand the situation... since mine is much the same. I only use open source and as far as possible free software and I cannot afford expensive validating software (which I presume is Adobe Pro or the likes thereof). In the end, I have to leave it to the print company to sort out any problem, but I just happen to be one of those people who try to understand what I am doing, and try to deal with problems as they arise, especially if I have log files in front of me that indicate an error. It seems a bit strange to me that if I choose (have to choose in my case) PDF/X-1a, and I need to indicate an intent, that I cannot easily find a color profile that fits it and that does not cause the ConTeXt log file to indicate either a fatal error (meaning I can no longer proceed without changing something) or an error that still allows compilation but says things like such-and-such a color profile is not found...; or that indeed compiles, but still tells me that transparency is supported, even if this is not according to the PDF/X standard. Yes, these standards are complex issues, so thank you for doing your best to explain things to me. I still appeal to someone out there who can indicate just what kind of intent I can use for PDF/X-1a that will comply with the standard that says I may not have rgb or transparency. Julian On 18/5/25 21:16, Pablo Rodriguez via ntg-context wrote:
[...] In other words, if rgb is permitted and transparency is supported, is this acceptable? Sorry, Julian, but I took the following for granted and it’s important
On 5/18/25 11:13, jbf wrote: that I make it clear first.
I tried to help, but I’m able to do it only to a certain extent. This is similar to “I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice”, I’m not a (printer|PDF/X validator) and this cannot be printing advice (only some information).
PDF/X are a series of ISO standards. I don’t have the resources (mainly, time and income) to spend 105€ (my currency) in less than twenty pages (to end having a hard time to even understand them). Besides, I have myself no use for it.
In theory, you cannot have rgb and transparency in PDF/X-1a. But as theory and practice may only differ in practice, it might be different in practice.
Here comes my personal take on the PDF/X-1a format for \setupbackend.
If your PDF document is validated against the standard (using a program), it may be automatically rejected.
But if it isn’t, your document may have no problem as long as it doesn’t contain other than grayscale colors and the grayscale output intent and color profile.
Again, this is as far as I understand. Sorry, but it is beyond my knowledge and I cannot pretend I know what IngramSpark will do with the PDF document you send them.
I hope it is clearer now,
Pablo ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
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