PDF file, make image dead black, it's now sort of greyish? Photoshop experts?

[Chris Wilson]

PCB images of a PCB. The black is of the traces,, mirrored. But when I, or a pro print shop, print to clear film the image is not a dense black. if I do a Print Screen of the page 4 of the files that I want to use, and open in Windows Paint, and then draw a black line across a blown up pad, it seems obvious to me that the PDF is not true dead black.

 

Can it be altered in something like GIMP of Photoshop to make all traces dead black without losing any edge definition of the traces and keeping the images the exact same size?

 

 

As say, page 4 is the only one of relevance to my needs, thanks

[Ric]

CMYK or RGB?

 

RGB black is not properly black it's more a very dark grey

 

If you're printing you need to be in the CYMK colour space and have 100% black

[Chris Wilson]

What do I need to do to achieve that please Ric? (In simple terms..... )

[Ric]

If you open the original file in photoshop and change the file properties to CYMK it will be a start. As for changing the actual paths to true back it should be a case of just filling the selections with 100% black. Im not sure if you'd lose some definition on the tracks it depends what the original file is, a raster or vector?

[Chris Wilson]

I'll try that, not sure what the original is, I just assumed a pdf was a pdf, can the images in a pdf be either? Thanks Ric.

[Ric]

If it's in PDF which is a vector format hopefully it was created as a vector in adobe illustrator for example.

 

You will know if it's a vector if you increase the size of the PDF and the edges are still smooth. If it IS a vector you'd probably be best editing the colourspace in Illustrator rather than photoshop. Perhaps Ellis can help here as i assume he works with vectors quite a lot.