Hi, I need to edit a vector diagram contained in a PDF which was originally created using Adobe InDesign CS5 (source diagrams not available). Using Inkscape (Windows XP; Inkscape 0.48.2 r9819) I opened the PDF and the colors of the diagram were changed. e.g. the color in the source PDF is D2232B (210:35:43) and after importing into Inkscape the color is now D22027. Diagram contains 5 colors and all of them were imported to different colors. (And yes the known issue with text and manual kerning also occurred - I can work around that). Other than text and color issues, the diagram imported correctly and I can ungroup objects, delete objects, etc.

As I am new to Inkscape is there something I missed during the PDF import. Has anyone experienced issues with color changes on PDF import? Is there some options I should be using for importing the PDF to prevent this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi. Not sure what exactly the issue is, as i've never had problems with non-matching colors during pdf import. Maybe the pdf has color profiles etc setup, which could be in CMYK or other industry standard color space..but the pdf engine in inkscape (cairo?) doesn't go that far? Pdfs produced with professional tools like InDesign can also include color separations etc...complexities that are more related to professional printing than to average user. Or even transparency or something else could come into play.
You should be able to multi-select the objects of each (wrong) color, and apply the fill color of choice to all those objects en-masse.
Another way is to open the inkscape svg file in wordpad (or even a more capable editor like Gvim) to search and replace all the colors, and save the file.

Agreed it is possible the PDF (or the original InDesign file) used color profiles and/or color separations. Is there a way to tell this in the source PDF using a PDF reader or other technique? I don't know how Inkscape handles color when importing a PDF - perhaps someone can help here?

Unfortunately all I have is the resultant PDF (50 pages) from which I need to extract and edit/fix the vector diagrams (10 to edit) to remove typos, fix diagram issues, etc so they can be used in another document. The diagrams a quite simple - just fill colours, no fancy transparencies.

Yes I can manually alter colors in the diagrams - was hoping not to have to do additional editing other than the fixes.
Ahh, never thought of editing the SVG - thanks for the idea and all your feedback.

afaik there are only small free or low cost tools to do this or that with a pdf, but none that would let you fully inspect the structure. it's a fairly complex format. pdf writer from adobe will do the job..but $$$.
you could try the copy/paste from adobe reader into inkscape, maybe that won't get the colors wrong. from memory inkscape only imports first page of a multipage pdf anyway?