Re: Color in PDF - Printing in black&white

[Shlomo Perets <microtype@xxxxxxxxx>]

Fiona,

You wrote:

> The xrefs in my document are blue so users will know they are links in the PDF.
> This looks great online, but the problem arises when the document is printed in black and white (which is what most users will do; we are delivering online manuals only).
> The xrefs come out grey and are difficult to read.
>
> How do I generate the PDF so the links print as black? Is there a way?

If the text is blue in the PDF, you cannot force it to print as black
as a general PDF setting.

Some options to consider:

* Experiment with a darker blue color and inspect the printed results

* Create two PDFs -- where one is print-optimized, possible through a
multiple definition of the color and importing the definition you need
when you finalize the output (so that you have a "Link" color which is
blue in one template and black in another), variations of this
techniques and/or print dialog box settings

* This requires an add-on (FM-to-Acrobat TimeSavers), but it possible
to have links show up with a blue underline (text is black),  visible
on-screen but not printed (so that paper output is not cluttered).
Aspects that can be controlled include underline color, thickness,
baseline offset, link highlight style. Acrobat/Reader 6 or higher are
required.
A sample PDF is available at
http://www.microtype.com/showcase/VisLinks.pdf (60K).
The entire active area created by cross-references and hypertext
markers can be automatically handled this way.


Shlomo Perets
shlomo2 at microtype com

MicroType * http://www.microtype.com
FrameMaker training & consulting * FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers
Template Design, Single Sourcing, FM-to-PDF & Technical Indexing seminars


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