Can I flatten/expand stroke to outlines on Export to PDF or EPS?

I have 300 page document that I need to use to send to a sign makers to have 300 different vinyl cut signs made. I've used a heavy stroked line in my document but when exported as EPS or PDF the stroke has not been outlined, meaning the path for the vinyl cutter is in the centre of the stroke, rather than the edge of the stroke.
Does anyone know of a way to outline the stroke in the export options? Or a way of converting the files outside of inDesign?
Thanks in advance

@Linus – since the sign maker rely on CUTTERS that follow paths, instead of a pixel based workflow, the only way is to convert thick strokes to areas. Do it by a proper transparency flattener preset. Check "Convert Strokes to Outlines". Apply your preset when exporting to PDF v1.3 (in InDesign CS5 and above print to PostScript and distill to PDF).
Of course you have to introduce transparency to all pages. Do so in setting up a rectangle above all page objects (best on master pages), fill it with "[Paper]", give it a opacity of 0 % in the effects palette and you are ready for output.
Check the results in Acrobat Pro with the touchup object tool and Adobe Illustrator (select the touchup object tool in Acrobat Pro, select all, right click and do "Edit Objects…", Illustrator will open the objects. All strokes should have a weight of 0).
Or set up a special preflight profile in Acrobat Pro that will throw an error if a path object has a stroke weight other than 0.
Uwe

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Can I ask InDesign to resample as it exports to PDF?

When I export an InDesign CS document to PDF I'd like to know what InDesign does to the images that it exports. InDesign Help, in this case, was no help.
I'll give a preamble so you know what I'm on about. Originally when I first started this project 2 years ago, I thought I would layout the images within InDesign, and just before printing I would go through every one of the 800 or so images in the book (it's a big book), and crop and resample them to 300 dpi at exactly the final printed size. Big job.
After a few months of using InDesign I thought: no, I won't do that. When I export to PDF I'll assume InDesign will give me options to 'crop to frame size' and set the ppi to 300 dpi as well as converting images to grayscale if I so choose. It'll be automatic.
I'll make it clear with an example. Let's assume an original image was scanned to give an image that is 4000 pixels wide and 2000 high, and that the final image is 20" x 10". It is to be printed on a Xerox iGen which requires 300 dpi for no loss of quality. So how does InDesign get that particular image into the PDF?
Q1: Does it resample and export at 300 dpi? i.e. in the example above, will it export an image of 6000 x 3000 pixels to the PDF?
Q2. Or does it export the original image and does nothing to the image except cropping if I ask it to? If it needs resampling that will be done at print stage by the iGen.
Q3: I didn't see any options for converting to grayscale. Can you export a PDF as grayscale?
Why I am concerned about this is because if the original image is exported, that may cause me file-size problems. I scanned most of my images at 20MB-60MB, yet a lot of them when printed will be of the order of 20 square inches and only require about 6 MB for adequate printing. I may end up with a PDF file that is 5 to 10 times larger than necessary.
The real problem I have is: I trust PS and InDesign to resample my images, but I don't have that kind of faith in the iGen. If I can't ask InDesign to resample images when it exports, I may have a problem.
When I did my original series of test prints in July 2006 on the iGen, I cropped and resampled the images ready for printing before I imported them into InDesign. So I haven't tested the iGen's resampling capabilities. I be blunt I don't trust it. The iGen ( a machine costing in the millions) failed a simple test of converting colour documents to grayscale. Here are my notes written at the time:
b Converting to Grayscale using the iGen
Do not use the iGen RIP to convert colour images to grayscale because it converts all gray densities above 90% to 100%. ie dark shadows end up as 100% solid black shadows with the accompanying sheen. I measured this figure from the K-only gradient at the bottom of the page. It appeared solid black for the first 9mm of a 96 mm black-to-white gradient. All densities between 100% and 91% ended up as 100%. The effect is very obvious in Mums hair which became a solid mass.
My full notes on the iGen are here: http://jucreek.googlepages.com/temporary if anyone wants to have a look.
Anyway, that's why I have concerns about images. Maybe I should just knuckle down for a week and go through 800 images, cropping and resampling every one in Photoshop. Talk me out of it, please.
And that brings me to my final question:
Q4: Can I ask InDesign to do that job for me: to crop, to resample at a certain dpi, and to overwrite the original image so that it all matches up?

Guy,
Let me try to recap all your statments with my comments:
> Let's assume an original image was scanned to give an image that is 4000 pixels wide and 2000 high, and that the final image is 20" x 10". It is to be printed on a Xerox iGen which requires 300 dpi for no loss of quality.
From the very start you're in trouble.
The image size you describe, set at 300 dpi, will only be 13 1/3" by 6 2/3". If the image is scaled up to be 20" by 10", it will only be 200
>dpi.
So, we're starting with insufficient data according to your requirements.
Nothing that InDesign or Acrobat does can make that image the correct resolution.
> Q1: Does it resample and export at 300 dpi? i.e. in the example above, will it export an image of 6000 x 3000 pixels to the PDF?
No, InDesign and Acrobat's print device will only resample
b down.
Neither will resample up.
> Q2. Or does it export the original image and does nothing to the image except cropping if I ask it to?
The image created in the PDF will be cropped. It doesn't touch the original file.
> If it needs resampling that will be done at print stage by the iGen.
I believe the iGen will only resample
b down
the same as InDesign and Acrobat's creation of the PDF.
> Q3: I didn't see any options for converting to grayscale. Can you export a PDF as grayscale?
As mentioned, that won't happen in the PDF Export but will happen with the PDF Print driver. However, that will also convert colors in the ID file, not just images, to grayscale.
> Why I am concerned about this is because if the original image is exported, that may cause me file-size problems. I scanned most of my images at 20MB-60MB, yet a lot of them when printed will be of the order of 20 square inches and only require about 6 MB for adequate printing. I may end up with a PDF file that is 5 to 10 times larger than necessary.
Perhaps I did my math incorrectly, but in your original example, 4000 x 2000 pixels cannot be set at 20 inches by 10 inches at 300 dpi.
It requires 6000 by 3000 inches to be 300 dpi at 20 inches by 10 inches.
> The real problem I have is: I trust PS and InDesign to resample my images, but I don't have that kind of faith in the iGen.
I don't think you need to worry about the iGen if you set your images correctly. But as I said above, you haven't sampled them enough. So the iGen isn't going to do anything.
> If I can't ask InDesign to resample images when it exports, I may have a problem.
You set ID and Acrobat to
b downsample
not
b upsample.
> When I did my original series of test prints in July 2006 on the iGen, I cropped and resampled the images ready for printing before I imported them into InDesign.
Cropping and resampling in Photoshop is always preferred as you have the options for how the resampling occurs that neither ID nor Acrobat have.
> So I haven't tested the iGen's resampling capabilities. I be blunt I don't trust it. The iGen ( a machine costing in the millions) failed a simple test of converting colour documents to grayscale.
No, I wouldn't have expected the iGen to convert to grayscale at all! Converting to grayscale can be done in the Acrobat print driver, but I would prefer to do it in Photoshop if I demanded very refined conversions.
> My full notes on the iGen are here: http://jucreek.googlepages.com/temporary if anyone wants to have a look.
See my comments above.
> Anyway, that's why I have concerns about images. Maybe I should just knuckle down for a week and go through 800 images, cropping and resampling every one in Photoshop. Talk me out of it, please.
You can resample using Photoshop's batch processing, but depending on the type of cropping that might need to be done manually in Photoshop. But if the cropping is always of a certain size and position that could be done in batch processing.
> Q4: Can I ask InDesign to do that job for me: to crop, to resample at a certain dpi, and to overwrite the original image so that it all matches up?
No, InDesign doesn't overwrite your original image, but it will change the image in the final PDF.

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Can I set the stroke of an object to be on top/in front and the fill on the bottom/in back?

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Expand Stroke makes closed object

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Judy Arndt wrote:
> D. Plank wrote:
>
>
>>Expanding a stroke used to expand just the line. Now,
it expands the
>>line and makes an object with by closing the path.
How can I get the old
>>behavior back with FHMX?
>
>
> I can't remember FH's Expand Stroke Xtra ever producing
two open paths.
>
> Select the butt end cap in the Expand Stroke dialog.
Option-click the end
> paths to subselect and delete them.
>
> There is an intermittent bug in FHMX, though. Sometimes
instead of giving
> the expanded object a fill the same color as the
previous stroke, it will
> apply the previous stroke and no fill. Is that what
you're asking about?
>
> Judy Arndt
>

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Can I flatten/expand stroke to outlines on Export to PDF or EPS?

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