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10.8.8 Fail When Converting
Color Spaces
When enabled, the activity will fail in cases where color spaces can’t
be converted 100% accurately in order to create the output, e.g. in
blend modes that are specified in CalibratedRGB when generating
CMYK Output. When the colorspace can be converted 100% ac-
curately, the activity will not fail.
10.8.9 Generate Slugline
When enabled, a line of text will be added to the bottom of every
separation, indicating job name, page and separation name.
10.8.10 Special Ink Handling
This parameter allows to set how “special inks” as defined in the Ink
Collection (see 1.8.2 Librarian on page 32) should be handled. “Dis-
abled” means that Special Inks will not be treated differently. There
is also the possibility to ignore Technical Inks, or to ignore Technical
and Varnish Inks.
10.8.11 Ink Collection
This sets the name of the Collection to be used. For more informa-
tion on Collections, see 1.8.2 Librarian on page 32. When left emp-
ty, the Default Collection as defined in Librarian will be used.
10.9. PDF Flatten
The PDF Flatten activity allows to replace objects using some spe-
cific features (like transparencies) by regular objects giving the same
result on print, but without those features (flattening).
10.9.1 New Workflow
When creating a new Workflow using the pre-
defined workflows (Basic, Autotrap,...), an op-
tion will be available to use the PDF Flattener.
When using this option, the PDF Flatten activ-
ity will be used underneath the Interpret PS/
PDF and Merge OPPO activity.
10.9.2 PDF Version
Allows to make the choice between PDF 1.3 or 1.4. When selecting
PDF 1.3, all 1.4 features will be flattened. The Version also influenc-
es the result of Delete Original settings. See below for more details.
10.9.3 Blends, Overprints,
Layers
• Flatten Non-Separable Blend Modes
If the PDF output version is PDF 1.3, all blend modes will be flat-
tened. For all other PDF versions, you can specify whether you
want non-separable blend modes to be flattened.
A blend is a mathematical function calculated between two ob-
jects, a source object and a backdrop object. Flattening blends
means that you will calculate the function between those two ob-
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jects. A separable blend function is a blend that won't affect other
seps (except for the blended one) after flattening. This means that
a separable blend function is recalculated for each separation
and therefore will only affect this separation. E.g. a separable
blend, containing CMYK: the cyan of the blend will only affect the
cyan of the backdrop, the magenta will only be mixed with the
magenta of the backdrop, etc.
A non separable blend function calculates the entire color in one
pass, which means that for calculating the blend, all seps of the
objects are taken into account (and also converted into HSL). So
a change in 1 separation will therefore affect all other colors.
A non-separable blend is NOT calculated for spot colors. When
this occurs, the spot separations are treated as normal knockout
separations. Acrobat previews these blends correctly, but Illus-
trator doesn’t. Non-separable blends are Color, Luminosity, Sat-
uration and Hue.
• Split DeviceN
Allows to decide if DeviceN is allowed or not. Device N defines
colorspaces containing more than 1 color, of which at least 1 is
a spot color (e.g. CMYK + spot color, or 2 spot colors) If DeviceN
is set to split, objects using DeviceN will be separated into 2 sep-
arate objects. If Split DeviceN is on, Resolve Overprint will always
be considered off.
• Resolve Overprints
This option defines whether the Overprint comment should be
used. As some PDF viewers do not preview overprints, it might
be advisable to turn Resolve Overprint on in order to get correct
preview. Also some older RIPs can have difficulties calculating
overprints on transparent objects. If Split DeviceN is switched on,
Resolve Overprint is always disabled.
• Convert Shadings
Switch this parameter on to convert shadings into images, using
the specified flattening resolution.
• Convert PS Blends
PostScript-style blends (or “PS blends”) are blends made of a
succession of paths with progressive variations of size/location
and color between them.
Switch this parameter on to convert PostScript-style blends into
images, using the specified flattening resolution.
This makes the file simpler and allows faster processing.
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• Remove Non-Printable Layers
From PDF 1.5, you can mark layers as “Non Printing”. When flat-
tening to earlier PDF versions, use this parameter to define how
to handle Non Printing layers.
Remove Non-Printable Layers on: this removes the Non Printing
layers when flattening the file.
Remove Non-Printable Layers off: this keeps the Non Printing
layers, but they become printable (only when flattening to an ear-
lier PDF version than PDF 1.5).
10.9.4 Inks
• Remove Technical And Varnish Inks
This removes Technical and Varnish inks from the file when flat-
tening.
• Knockout Opaque Inks
Switch this parameter on to make objects using opaque inks
knockout.
• Ink Collection
By defining an Ink Collection, you set Nexus to use an Ink Collec-
tion. Ink Collections are used to convert inks.
For an elaborate explanation on the use of Collections, we refer
to the Librarian documentation.
• Cut Out White Linework
Switch this parameter on to convert white lineart objects into clip-
ping paths. This can be useful when using versioning.
• Cut Out White Text
Switch this parameter on to convert white text objects into clip-
ping paths. This can be useful when using versioning.
10.9.5 Flattening Resolution
In order to flatten a file, Nexus may need to generate images. These
images will be generated at the resolution entered here.
10.9.6 Completely
Resample Images
If parts of an image require flattening (e.g. a blend partially over an
image), these parts will be in a new image, at the resolution defined
in the Flattening Resolution. As only a part of the image is resam-
pled, there might be a change of resolution, and pixels may not align
anymore, causing a pixel shift and a visual line.
If the option is switched on, a contone that needs to be resampled
partially, will get resampled completely to the same resolution and
grid in order to avoid pixel shifts.
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10.9.7 Delete All Original
Objects
If switched off, this will keep the original objects underneath the flat-
tened objects. However, if the original object is a PDF 1.4 object
and the flatten style is PDF 1.3, the original object won't be kept
anyhow. Keeping Original Objects can be useful for editing. If, e.g.
you have some text and vector objects on top of a vector back-
ground, the background is cut into pieces after flattening. If Delete
Originals is off, the complete background object will be kept in the
file, which could make the editing of the file easier.
10.9.8 Save Incremental
The option defines whether to save the file optimized with all chang-
es, or to save it Incremental, adding all changes to the existing file.
Note:
Unlike other PDF Workflow activities, the PDF Flatten activity will
NOT error on files other than PDF files. These files will be passed on
directly to the next activity.
10.10. Equinox PDF to PDF
The Equinox PDF to PDF activity allows to do Equinox conversion
on a PDF file. For more information on Equinox conversion, we refer
to the Equinox documentation.
10.11. Generate OPI
The OPI activity will create a lowres PDF of the complete page. The
content of the PDF file is in the lowres PDF converted to an image.
The output file will respect all page box information of the original
file. The resolution and the output file name of the OPI image can be
defined. You can define Antialiasing, to improve the quality of eg.
small text.
A typical setup would consist of two parts:
•Page workflow with Generate OPI:
First prepare the single pages and generate a low res
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•Resolve OPI and output to RIP:
Make an Imposition with the low res files (e.g. in Dynastrip,
Preps, ...)
Resolve the OPI and send it to a Rasterize activity
10.12. Resolve OPI
The Resolve OPI activity allows changing the referenced external
documents links. The activity can be used to make the external
documents internal, or to update and/or reroute all references.
10.12.1 Output
• Incremental Save
Defines to save the file optimized with all changes, or to save it
Incremental, adding all changes to the existing file.
10.12.2 Options
• Update Links Mode
If this is set to Only Update Links, only the links will be updated,
based on settings of Root Folder, extension and folder remap-
ping.
If set to “Update images, keep Links”, the images will be embed-
ded (resulting in “fat” PDF), but the OPI links will be kept.
if set to “Update images, remove Links”, the images will be em-
bedded (resulting in “fat” PDF), and the OPI links will be removed.
• Fail If No Links Found
If this option is on, files without any OPI comments will fail.
• Placed PDF Page Box
This option allows to select the page box that will be used in OPI
resolving. By default, this is set to the Cropbox. In some cases
(e.g. PDF files from InDesign), the OPI comments are in a different
Page Box.
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10.12.3 Folders
• Root Folders
Defines where Nexus has to search for the referenced files. The
defined Root Folder(s) and all underlying folders will be searched.
The + button opens a browse dialog, allowing to select the Root
Folder. The - button allows to remove a selected path. Multiple
Root Folders can be defined.
• Exclude Folders
When searching through the Root Folder, folders with a name as
entered in Exclude folder(s) will not be searched.
This can be used if all images can be found on the same volume,
with the possibility to exclude all folders containing lores files.
10.12.4 Mappings
• Map Extensions
The Map Extensions can be used to replace the extension of the
linked file. This can for example be used to place image.HR in-
stead of image.LR described in the link.
The “From” field contains the original extension. If left blank, the
To will be applied to all linked files.
The “To” field is a comma separated list of the extension to be
used as replacement for the supplied extension. If multiple exten-
sions are entered, Nexus will search for a file matching one of
them. In this list, the back slash can be used to preserve a char-
acter. This means, if you want to enter a comma in an extension,
this comma would normally be interpreted as separator. By put-
ting a back slash in front of it, the comma will be seen as regular
character instead of separator.
• Absolute Folders
Absolute Folder Mapping allows to replace a part of the path in
the files to be found. The “From” field should contain the first part
of the original path, to where it should be replaced. It has to be
entered manually. The “To” field can be defined using the Browse
button, which opens a browser dialog, allowing to select the “To”
Folder. The Cross button will remove a path selected earlier.
The File System Path Format allows to set what Operating Sys-
tem the OPI server is using, in order to use the correct path struc-
ture and syntax.
Example:
From: file:///CD_Images/Images/
To: file:///HD/Images/Customers/
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