Acrobat 9 Transparency Flattening Colour Shift

Hi all,
This is something I found out the hard way, and it seems like a real trap in Acrobat 9.
I have a document prepared in ID, exported to PDF/X-4 with all profiles included. The document is prepared in RGB model (AdobeRGB), because we're printing in house on Epson 4800 tabloid printer.
All looks fine onscreen in Acrobat. (Colour managed setup etc).
But when printing to the Epson, the images have poor shadow detail and are darker than they should be.
I eventually figured out that it is to do with the colour space used for Transparency Flattening. It took me a while to find it, but by default it is set to "Device RGB" on my system in the Flattener Preview. When I changed it to Adobe RGB, which is the colour working space used in the document, the prints come out correctly.
Observations:
1. Changing the colour space for flattening is not persistent as a general setting, but you can save it back to the PDF.
2. Even though it appears on the same dialog, the colour space is not stored with the transparency flattener presets.
3. This setting has an ongoing effect on how the document is printed (i.e. after the dialog is closed), even though the dialog leads you to believe it only relates to flattening preview.
What puzzles me is why this setting can't be put there with the correct value when ID generates the PDF.
Is there anything else I've overlooked here? This seems like a really nasty little trap for the unwary.
MT

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Transparency flattening - unwanted color added to transparent PSD files (IDCS3)

Recently (after switching to CS3) I began experiencing frustrating problems in relation to (what I think is the problem) transparency flattening.
The problem seems to evolve in the printing process where "something" messes up the transparency by adding a 1% (typically) magenta color to the transparent flattened image. (I´m using transparent PSD-files)
This means that the bounding box-area of the image is actually visible in print! I can see this on my own prints (tested on several in-house printers), but worse is that I´m having the same problem with the material I receive from the printing house.
- When I check my PSD files in Photoshop there is no color but a transparent background.
- In Indesign I´ve tried a lot of different output settings and job option files but with the same result.
- In Acrobat my "output preview" measures no deviations, but when I (touch up tool > right click) edit image from inside Acrobat and the image file opens up in Photoshop the 1% is added.
For now I´m dealing with the problem by adding clipping paths to my PSD files which is a pretty untenable situation!
Apparently the problems seems to occur also on transparent .tiff filer etc.
I´m working in CS3 on OSX and I haven´t changed my workflow whatsoever since CS2.
The printing house is aware of the problem but haven´t experienced the problem before.

Sounds to me like an RGB/CMYK colour space issue.
If your image is in RGB but your InDesign document export settings are for CMYK (or vice versa) then you have Adobe converting the colours for you. Since there is a colour shift between the two colour spaces, you have no control over how the conversion happens.
In photoshop, "white" is not the same between RGB and CMYK and I often find there is 1 or 2% magenta in the mix (just as you're finding) when going from RGB to CMYK.
The transparency flattener function is pretty much the same as flattening the layers in photoshop - when it gets to the bottom layer you get one image with a box around it. the same in InDesign - everything that has a transparency (including images with no background) is flattened down on all the objects underneath to create a single image. If the transparent object is just on the paper then it gets a white box around it.
I suggest you check that your images are converted to CMYK in photoshop, and that your PDF export settings in InDesign convert all colours to CMYK. then ensure you use the High Quality in the transparency flattener settings.
Good luck!

Transparency flattening issue (I think)

Hi all,
I'd appreciate your help with this. I've tried researching this through the forum yet still find myself confused. I think it's a transparency flattening issue, but I'm unsure of how to fix it, and even at what point to fix it.
I designed this for a magazine ad in InDesign CS2 and exported to PDF. The polaroids have drop shadows, which look fine on screen:
But when I print I get these ugly "borders" where the transparencies are:
Can't get rid of them, except by printing the PDF as an image.
My questions are:
1) Assuming this is a transparency issue, how do I fix this? I've read about transparency presets on the forum, but (please forgive my lameness) I'm not sure how to actually apply them.
2) At what point do I fix this? I mean, as a best practice, is this something that's addressed inside InDesign, or during the export from InDesign, or when printing the PDF? It looked fine in the magazine so obviously they were able to fix it, but I'd still like to know what I'm doing wrong to save them extra work in the future.
I have Adobe CS2 and Acrobat 7 Pro on a Windows XP Pro.
Many thanks for your help,
Ed

That's quite a color shift, too, on the background which seems like more than you'd see from a poor image capture of the printed piece.
I bet you are using a spot color. Unless you are actually paying to have that spot color printed in the magazine (if they even would), you shouldn't be using it. Make sure you go into the ink manager and convert all spots to process, or replace any spot colors with process colors. You should be the one handling the color conversion, and using process color will simplify the flattening, I think.
Peter

Stitch lines created in a PDF/X-1a due to transparency flattening during export from InDesign

Has there been any sure fire methods to avoid the digital stitch lines created in a PDF/X-1a due to transparency flattening during export from InDesign? If I attempt to edit the PDF using the Acrobat Edit Text and Graphics tool the PDF is actually carved into sectors and images are not selectable as a whole. Also contrary to what I have read those white lines do indeed image from time to time. I could export as PDF/X4 to preserve the transparency but on occasion it would be advantageous to flatten it before supplying to the printer. Currently using CC and have done the usual things in an attempt to avoid the lines such as all text above transparent objects on a separate layer and 'Clip-Complex-Region' on export.
Thanks in Advance!

If the default High Res flattener preset is stitching make a custom preset that's all rasters and use it in the advanced tab of the PDF/X-1a preset

Different transparency flattening results

Hi all,
When I flatten transparency using the [high resolution] flattener presets in Acrobat 10.1 Flattener Preview, I get flattened areas with pretty high resolutions: 1681x1681ppi, 762x762ppi. When I export my original IND-document to PDF using the exactly the same flattener presets, I flattened areas or images with a resolution of 300x300ppi (as I would expect from these presets).
Anyone who can explain the difference? I always assumed that both techniques are using the same underlying technology / algorithms to flatten a page (therefore giving the same end result).
BTW: the first situation resulted in the 'thin white lines' (artifacts) to appear on screen and in print (!) , so 'not good'.

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Transparency flattening compression quality

Hi,
In Acrobat 9, an important option was missing for transparency flattening: the compression quality setting. I found that it is now available in Acrobat XI. When I saw that, I thought that my problems with flattening were a thing of the past. Well... no. I use preflight droplets to process the PDF files and the compression quality is not present in the prefilght options. Why is the quality setting available in the Transparency Flattening dialog box and not in the prefilght profile? And, if not present, why did Acrobat choose to use the "Fast processing" quality instead of "Best quality" for transparency flattening done with preflight?
Thanks!

First off, a SD (DVDs are SD) image will never look as good as a High Def Image but you probably know that.
It appears you have made a copy of the Apple preset for DVD compression, that's what we want.
Open up the MPEG-2 Setting and click to the third menu (Frame Controls), click the sprocket button to allow Frame Controls to be ON, Resize Filter should be Better and Adaptive Details should be checked, move the Anti-Alias slider to 35 and try compressing again.
You can play with these sliders to reduce aliasing (stair-stepping) and/or increase detail (enhance edges)

Help with Transparency Flattener!

I'm working with an Indesign file that has Illustrator links, which contain gradient meshes that use transparency. When I export my Indesign file, the transparency flattener does something very strange to the gradient mesh: it displays the vector lines of the mesh as dark grey lines.
I've found a way around this problem, but it is not ideal. If I export the file as Acrobat 4, I can change the transparancy flattener settings, and eliminate the issue. However, if I use Acrobat 4, I also lose the ability to add hyperlinks in the document (of which I have a number) Why is that that if you use a higher version of acrobat (5 or above) you suddenly lose the ability to manage the transparancy flattener? Why would older versions of the product allow more freedom and control?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Below are screeshots of what it looks like in illustrator, and then flattened but the default flatteners of acrobat 5 and above. Really, I just want to be able to achieve a customized flattener that doesn't contain those dark lines, but not have to use actobat 4 to do it.
Thanks!
jason

Hi Steve—
Your questions have half solved my problem for me!
I'm using the latest version of Indesign (7.5) and Illustrator (15.1.0)
I'm exporting using the High Quality Print setting (I know, a bit strange to use this setting AND want hyperlinks, but the PDF is intended for web distribution to people who might decide to print it) and when I choose anything above acrobat 4 in the compatibility drop down (5, 6, 7...) then the transparency flattener is greyed out in the advanced tab, with medium set as the default. If i want to choose my own flattener settings, I have to go with PDF 4, at which point I lose hyperlinks. I've also tried exporting choosing Adobe PDF (Interactive) from the initial menu, but that results in the same lines in the gradient mesh.
However, it turns out this issue is only happening when viewing the pdf in apple's preview app. It actually looks fine in acrobat. However, seeing as how Preview is the default app for viewing PDFs on a mac, I'm concerned that a bulk of our audience will be seeing it this way.
I know this likely puts things out of the realm of adobe, but if you have any wisdom to impart, I'd appreciate it. Attached is what the file looks like viewed acrobat (above) and preview (below).
thanks!
jason

Transparency Flattener only affects a few pages

I'm trying to use the transparency flattener to essentially rasterize all the text in a PDF. (Before the pitchforks come out, it's for legal reasons... hands are tied.)
I open the Transparency Flattener preview, move the Raster/Vector slider all the way to 0, change the dpi to 400, select the All Pages radio button, hit apply, and it seems like only a random sampling of pages actually gets rasterized. Most text is still selectable. Any ideas on how I might go about figuring out what's going on? I've done exporting each page to an image, then recombining to a PDF, but the file size is just too big.
Using Acrobat XI Pro on Windows 7.

Options:
- Open the files in Photoshop and save as an image PDF.
- Export all pages as TIFF/JPEG and then re-import them Acrobat.

Colour shift in save for web when saving on PC and then viewing on Mac

Hey peeps, I am aware of this colour shift when saving images for web. I have a designer resizing, cropping photos, and then saving on PC. He uses PC and when he sends the photos over to me on my Mac there is a big colour shift (photos are much lighte
Could anyone please explain exactly what he needs to do in order for these photos to look the same as the originals on my computer, basically no lightness shift? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Adam

Because the WWW is based on untagged (2.2 gamma) sRGB - your genius is probably sending you untagged sRGB if they were Saved for the Web (that's how I prepare my Web color).
Your Mac display should be profiled to 2.2 gamma (you are likely at the old default 1.8 gamma now if you're seeing a lightness shift on untagged sRGB)...if you want "your color" back in Photoshop, you will need to (re)Assign the sRGB profile...

Colour shift from Snow Leopard to Lion

I initially noticed this problem within Lion and Lightroom 4 when printing to my Epson 4800. The colour shifts to a more pinkish hue in prints done in Lion. I'd originally thought this was unique to Lightroom, but the same thing happens to the same file when printed in Preview, so I'm assuming it ithe rhas something to do with Lion or the Epson printer. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this experience and if they have any suggestions. I've read other threads on this here, and I can confirm it's not a monitor calibration issue, and that my printer driver for the 4800 is the one for Lion, and that everything in Lightroom and the driver is configured identically in both versions of the OS.
I'm stuck, and figure the expertise for this is in this forum, so I'm sorry that it seems to be slightly outside of being an Adobe specific issue, but would appreciate any suggestions. I'm able to replicate the problem consistently by bouncing back and forth between the two operating systems. I'm going to try going back to a previous driver version to see if that makes a difference.
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Chris

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Weird colour shift on TV through HDMI

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I'm using my TV with XBMC to watch videos on my computer more comfortably, but even since I changed my computer the image get those weird shifts where it goes black for about a second, comes back on looking weird, then about 20 seconds later it's one second of black and then back on as normal again. But if I change channel on my TV when it happens, and then switch back to the HDMI channel corresponding to my computer, the image is fixed. I've tried timing this issue, and it seems to appear roughly every 20 minutes, but it can appear twice in 5 minutes, or not at all in 40...
Because an image is worth a hundred words, I took a picture with my phone during one of these colour shifts, here's what it looks like: http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3284/imag0063gc.jpg . As you can see by the xbmc menu looking weird too, this is not the video's fault.
I've also tried switching the cable, but the issue remains. I've been using this setup for a while, but as I said, I changed computer recently, and part of this change was going from a nVidia card to an ATI one, more specifically a radeon HD 7870, and I'm using the official AMD driver (which is kind of required, since the free driver apparently doesn't support sound over HDMI for my card yet).
It's probably worth mentioning that my primary display, which is plugged in VGA, does not have this issue. Also, I have a Windows dual-boot, but I have yet to test if this issue also appears on Windows (which is kind of a pain to do, due to the randomness of my issue...).
I've tried googling this for days and have yet to find anyone reporting the same issue, but seeing how English isn't my native language, I might not have used the right keywords...
Because I guess this is relevant, here is my xorg.conf on pastebin: http://pastebin.com/2eWPKnt2 . This was generated using amdcccle, so it should be legit (though I do miss nvidia-settings, amd got some work to do on their GUI tool). Not sure if this is relevant, but just in case : to launch the computer on my TV, I use this xorg.conf (named xorg.conf.TV in my system), and start X with the following command (through an alias, of course):
xinit .xinitrcTV -- /usr/bin/X :1 -config xorg.conf.TV
And my .xinitrcTV containing the following:
setxkbmap fr
xbmc
xterm
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Colour shift problem in CS5 not in Lightroom

Hi Guys,
This is a long post but to save time Ill try to explain my setup and my problem which has only started in the last three weeks. My setup: Win Xp pro SP3 fully updated on a well speced dell machine/ Lightroom 3 (v 33 v 711369) Cs5 (latest version). Fully self profiled (I write my own profiles using xRite Pulse) printing through QImage to Epson 7880. I have been using PS since v5 (approx 10 years) and Cap1 and then lightroom since it came out.
My workflow is simple: Import Nikon D3 raw files to Lightroom, Using either acr or more recently (maybe one change I have made!) Camera standard calibration. Colour correct crop etc and export an adobe RGB jpeg export setting below: Hi Guys,
This is a long post but to save time Ill try to explain my setup and my problem which has only started in the last three weeks. My setup: Win Xp pro SP3 fully updated on a well speced dell machine/ Lightroom 3 (v 33 v 711369) Cs5 (latest version). Fully self profiled (I write my own profiles using xRite Pulse) printing through QImage to Epson 7880. I have been using PS since v5 (approx 10 years) and Cap1 and then lightroom since it came out.
My workflow is simple: Import Nikon D3 raw files to Lightroom, Using either acr or more recently (maybe one change I have made!) Camera standard calibration. Colour correct crop etc and export an adobe RGB jpeg export setting below: Hi Guys,
This is a long post but to save time Ill try to explain my setup and my problem which has only started in the last three weeks. My setup: Win Xp pro SP3 fully updated on a well speced dell machine/ Lightroom 3 (v 33 v 711369) Cs5 (latest version). Fully self profiled (I write my own profiles using xRite Pulse) printing through QImage to Epson 7880. I have been using PS since v5 (approx 10 years) and Cap1 and then lightroom since it came out.
My workflow is simple: Import Nikon D3 raw files to Lightroom, Using either acr or more recently (maybe one change I have made!) Camera standard calibration. Colour correct crop etc and export an adobe RGB jpeg export setting below:
NB Also set to do nothing after export!
All good so far. Colours on my profiled monitor are good. If I then print this file through Q image all is good (and this is most of my files!) . Happy days! However if I open in CS5 (Colour settings below-which have not changed for 10 years!) the colour changes. I am getting no profile mismatch warning (I shouldn’t – file is adobe rgb which is my working space). But there is a noticeable colour shift. If I do nothing to the file and resave the colour has shifted. I have tried opening a file/ saving with a different file name and printing the two on the same sheet of paper to eliminate printer issues – the shift that I see on my monitor is there. Why would opening an Adobe RGB jpeg in CS5 change its colour? It certainly never happened before. Also if within Lightroom I click “edit in PS”, open the file and resave the colour has shifted..
((I have also tried preserve embedded profile but this doesn’t solve the issue!)
My workaround is to do lightroom conversion, (colour correct!), Open and edit in CS5 (colour shift) save as different file name, Import into Lightroom (Now says embedded profile (This is correct I think) Do nothing in terms of colour (which now looks correct again!) and export (Wow Correct colour Again!!)
Does anybody know what is going on??
I have used half a roll of paper doing test prints and have established the following:
My monitor profile is correct, (What I see is what I get!)
QImage setting & My printer profile is correct ( What I see is what I get! By printing the two files on the same sheet (this will eliminate printer issues) I can see the CS5 file is very different - as on the monitor)
All lightroom exports are correct (what I see is what I get!)
I also opened a file on CS3 (across a network to a non colour managed machine but with adobe rgb work space, did nothing with the file but resave and the colours shift again!
I attach samples below: The difference reminds me of what an Adobe RGB file looks like on a non colour managed monitor – Flatter (no punch) but also a slightly green
Any Help would be much appreciated!
Thanks, Nigel
NB Also set to do nothing after export!

Very generally, they both describe profiles. ICC is the standard International Color Consortium format for profiles and ICM is Microsoft's flavor (standing for Integrated Color Management, I believe).
Photoshop et. al. are able to use both, but even a name match wouldn't mean the contents are identical. There is some possibility that they actually are equivalent under the covers in this case, and that my spotting the slight difference in names isn't the source of the visible color differences. It is almost certainly why the warning message is being emitted, though.
These may help further with definitions, but are not light reading by any means:
http://www.color.org/iccprofile.xalter
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487495
-Noel

Viewing angle (with no colour shift) on new iPad much narrower than older iPads

I just got a new iPad yesterday and the new display's resolution is magical!! I am unfortunately experiencing the yellow tinted screen that others are, but I'm hopeful this will improve over a short time as any glues involved perhaps dry. I THINK perhaps it's already improved though this could be my imagination, hard to tell. It's also clear on a totally black screen that it fails to go as dark as my iPad 2, which itself failed to go as dark as my iPad 1. Still, that resolution, spectacular...
I am however also experiencing a very narrow viewing angle, especially in the vertical direction, it's the most worse when held in normal portrait orientation with the cameras at the top, if I tilt the top of the iPad away from me then the entire screen colour shifts to yellow quite strongly within about 10 degrees or so. I'll shoot some video of it at some point compared to the iPad 2. I wonder if the colour yellow could be linked to the general yellow tint that can be seen on whites even in perfectly straight viewing. But I also wonder if the new retina display just has a much narrower viewing angle without colour shift compared to the older iPads.
Would love to hear how other people's new iPad screens are performing in this regard. Are they all shifting as they're tilting, especially in that vertical tilt I described?
Cheers

I have the same problem. Here is the pic I took to compare with my old iPad 2.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76217456@N03/6844051610

Photoshop to Lightroom Colour Shift

Hi all,
I've recently upgraded from CS5 to CC after purchasing a Nikon D7100 over christmas and thus needing the latest versions fro RAW support (Nikon NEF).
My problem is I am experiencing colour shift between Photoshop and Lightroom after upgrading. I have set Lightroom to use 16-bit ProPhoto RGB images when editing in Photoshop. My computer is a Late 2012 MacMini with an Apple Thunderbolt Display.
I originally posted this in the Photoshop forum and have moved it over here after being recommended to do so.
The image below shows the problem, where the colour is correct in Photoshop, but not in Lightroom.
In the other thread we went through the motions and eliminated:
D7100 Camera Raw Profile
Lens profile
Screen calibration and profile
It seems most likely at this point that Lightroom is applying some kind of alterations to the image settings. If I Right Click a problem image in lightroom and say "edit in photoshop with lightroom adjustments" that colours appear incorrect in photoshop, too.
Can anyone make any suggestions here? I can't seem to get anything I shot last weekend out of lightroom with the correct colours!
Thanks,
Dan.

A “raw” HDR image has darks that are too dark to see detail in and lights that are too bright to see any detail in. The process of “tone mapping” is what scrunches all the floating point values into the normal range of black to white. Once an image is tone mapped its pixel values all fall into the range of zero to whatever the maximum value is for white in a 16-bit or 8-bit format and it can be saved as such. The 32-bit floating point image is supposed to be temporary on the way to an 8- or 16-bit image. Personally I save the original 32-bit image in a separate file from the tone-mapped 16- or 8-bit image so I can always go back and revisit the tone mapping operation.
LR supports 32-bit images otherwise you would see nothing. Here is a discussion about why things look different that includes Eric Chan, an Adobe Raw Engineer, to someone bringing up a similar concern a little over a year ago:
ttp://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom_preview_of_hdr_tonemapped_i mage_doesnt_match_what_is_shown_in_photoshop_acr
It used to be that Photoshop was the only Adobe product that could open 32-bit files and tone-map them to 16- or 8-bits and I would argue that it did an unsatisfying job. Eventually this capability was added to LR and the ACR plug-in for Photoshop which does a better job, but being raw converters, the starting point looks brighter on screen.
Photomatix is a payfor product that also does a good job with both merging and tone-mapping to 16- or 8-bits. It comes with both a standalone and a plug-in interface. There are others, but Photomatix is the one I’ve tried in the past.

Why can I not select the transparency flattener preset option when exporting to a pdf?

Hi all,
I have not had to use this option in quite a while so may have forgotten a few things.
In InDesign, under Edit>Transparency Flattener Presets, I have created a new preset and included the option of converting all text to outlines.
However, when I try to export to a PDF, the option to select a transparency flattener preset is greyed out.
Can you tell me what I may be doing wrong? This is driving me crazy!:(
(There was originally no transparency in the file, so I created some with a white square set to 0.5% opacity).
Thanks in advance for your help!
Best regards,
Christine

DesignerDave72,
Thank you SO MUCH!!
I have been battling with this for over an hour...and it was frustrating me no end. 1 minute into reading the article you suggested and I was home free!! THANK YOU...!! You're my hero!
Best regards,
Christine

Acrobat 9 Transparency Flattening Colour Shift

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