When you create Adobe PDFs for commercial printing, you can specify how color information is represented. The easiest way to do this is using a PDF/X standard; however, you can also specify color-handling options manually in the Output section of the PDF dialog box. For more information about PDF/X and how to create PDFs, search Help.

In general, you have the following choices for handling colors when creating PDFs:

• (PDF/X‑3) Does not convert colors. Use this method when creating a document that will be printed or displayed on various or unknown devices. When you select a PDF/X‑3 standard, color profiles are automatically embedded in the PDF.

• (PDF/X‑1a) Converts all colors to the destination CMYK color space. Use this method if you want to create a press-ready file that does not require any further color conversions. When you select a PDF/X‑1a standard, no profiles are embedded in the PDF.

• (Illustrator and InDesign) Converts colors that have embedded profiles to the destination color space, but preserves the numbers for those colors without embedded profiles. You can manually select this option in the Output section of the PDF dialog box. Use this method if the document contains CMYK images that aren’t color-managed and you want to make sure that the color numbers are preserved.