How to Separate Colors for Printing in Word 2007

Cyan, magenta, yellow and black can be combined to create thousands of colors.

Color separation is necessary as part of the traditional offset printing process (using a printing press), in which each color is broken down into four inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (or CMYK). Almost any color can be recreated using those four inks. Many desktop publishing software packages have the ability to define the colors in the document in terms of CMYK components. Microsoft Word does not, however, so a Microsoft Word document cannot be used by a commercial offset printer. However, you can convert a Word document to a usable PDF format for offset printing.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Acrobat
• Printer with postscript

Instructions

Convert to PDF

1. Open the Word document you want to prepare for printing, and click "File," then "Print."

2. Click the "PDF" button.

3. Select "Save as PDF."

4. Give the new file a name with the .pdf extension, choose a location, and click "Save." Your Word document now also exists in PDF format.

View Color Separations

1. Open in Adobe Acrobat the document you saved as a PDF.

2. Select the "Advanced" menu, then "Print Production," then "Output Preview."

3. Click on and drag the "Output Preview" window to a place where it is not blocking your document.

4. Select a Simulation Profile from the drop-down menu. If you do not know what kind of printer the document will be printed to, select "Generic CMYK Profile."

5. Check or uncheck the Process Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black check boxes or the spot color check boxes to see a single color or combination of colors.

Print Color Separations

1. Send the PDF document to the printing house electronically, such as by email. If you are printing the document yourself (not recommended if high quality is needed), continue with Step 2.

2. Open in Adobe Acrobat the document you saved as a PDF.

3. Select "Print" from the "File" menu.

4. Select a postscript printer or other postscript device.

5. Click on the "Advanced" button.

6. Select "Color" and then "Separations" from the drop-down menu in the "Advanced Print Setup" window.

7. Click "OK" to get back to the Print window, and then click "Print."

Tips & Warnings

• Finalize your Word document before converting it to a PDF, because you will not be able to make changes to the PDF. (The original Word document will still exist, but if you change it, you will have to repeat the PDF creation process.)

• If you are sending the document to a professional printing house, you do not need to print the color separations yourself.

• There is a wide variety of options you can set in the Advanced Print Setup window, which depend on your document, printer and personal preferences.

• Desktop publishing applications that do support color separations include Adobe InDesign and Microsoft Publisher.

• An alternative to using offset printing is to find a printing house with a high-end digital color copier. For small quantities, a color copier will probably cost less; offset printing is more economical for large numbers of copies.

• Printing color separations to a personal printer may not give color results that are as accurate as a printing house would get on a high-end professional printer.

• To get accurate separations, you need to know enough about your document, your printer and the terminology of color printing to complete the Acrobat printing dialog box selections correctly.

• You cannot preview or print color separations using Adobe Reader.

• Your printer must be a postscript device to print separations.

References

• AG Design: What Is Color Separation and How to Separate Colors for Printing
• Adobe: Acrobat 9 Pro -- Preview Color Separations
• Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional: Help File: Print Color Separations

Resources

• Microsoft Office Support: Word or Publisher: Choose the Best Tool for the Job