Transparency flattener/overprint issue?

as per my post title suggests i have experienced an issue that i think maybe something related to either the transparency flattener settings or overprint.
i have received some pdf files from a client which i put into indesign CS4. I add some company information and then output a pdf (export from indesign profile PDFX 1a 2001) ready for print.
when receiving the clients pdfs which i have noticed where created in CS5 have no overprint settings applied to the file at all. (See image below)
Shot at 2011-10-27
after creating my pdf it has set elements to overprint. why is this? All i have done is add the original pdfs into indesign and output them again! is indesign managing the overprint settings without my knowledge? (See image below)
Shot at 2011-10-27
All of this was brought to light after the job had been printed! but for some reason it has knocked out some of the elements set to overprint rather than over printed them. You will notice from the image below that the stars on the left have come out correct but the stars on the top right have not! apart from the part over the image.
Shot at 2011-10-27
A colleague of mine at work seems to think the issue has something to do with the transparency flattener settings when a vector graphic connects with a bitmapped image.
Does anyone have any knowledge or experience into what has happened here and could help me resolve this issue from occuring in the future? as i need to provide an explanation to my client. as it has baffled my printer! and he has no answers!
thanks in advance.
Dazzlag

I’m asking because unless there’s a real good reason, you shouldn’t be flattening transparency yourself. In fact, fully modern workflows don’t flatten it at all.
And yes, it would be a good idea to find out what settings your client used. But my first guess is that they used transparency, not overprint to achieve that effect.
Bob

Similar Messages

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

Spot colors and Transparency causing Overprint knock-out

Whenever I create a PDF from InDesign (CS3) I get missing artefacts/items on print production.
It is caused by a transparent PSD file being laid over a spot color.
I print a /ps file and then Distill to Press Quality.
Overprint preview in ACrobat Pro shows what I need by overprint off I lose info - this causes immense problems at all the pre-pre studios I use.
Any pointers to a cure/reason?
(more info if needed upon request)

For one, please do not go through PostScript , rather export to PDF directly. When doing so, you may want to do the transparency flattening either during PDF export (i.e. in Indesign) or later on in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Going through PostScript/distilling adds extra potential for issues.
Next, any print service provider who is not in a position to deal reliably with overprints, does not deserve a contract from a high profile client. Rather, find print service providers who are up to the task. A decent print service provider should produce a result that is visually very very close to what you see in Adobe Acrobat Pro having turned on Overprint Simulation and Output Preview. If the output from a print service provider suffers from missing portions or other artifacts (as those that can be seen when Overprint simulation and Overprint Preview are turned off in Acrobat Pro) then that print service provider is simply failing.
Finally - as pointed out by Jon, the best approach is to keep the transparency in your PDFs alive and find print service providers that can deal with it (because for example they have a workflow based on the Adobe PDF Print Engine).
Olaf Druemmer
PS: ... or would you accept a week old bread rolls from your baker?

Automate Loading of Transparency Flattener Preset

For a project I'm working on we need for our users to have a particular transparency flattener preset loaded. I'm not finding a way to load it ahead of time. I can verify if it's loaded, which is helpful:
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
     set flattenerPresets to flattener presets
     if flattenerPresets does not contain "NameOfFlattenerPreset" then
          --do whatever magic is necessary to load the preset
     end if
end tell
Because of a bug in Illustrator I can't use UI scripting via AppleScript to automate the import. The issue here is that Illustrator doesn't respond to the "click" command properly when it comes to checkboxes and buttons.
Another option would be to just place a copy of the preset file into the proper location on the hard drive so that Illustrator sees it. Problem is, I can't seem to determine where that is. Adobe seems to be hiding it somewhere. I manually loaded a preset and then moved it from that location on the hard drive. I re-launched Illustrator and it still had the preset.
At this point I'm not sure how to automate the loading of this preset. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Stephan
Version Info:
Illustrator CS4
Mac OS X 10.5.8

I don't think its possible to load a preset from AppleScript. Can't your script just supply the flattening options at which ever point they are required?
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
set This_Flatten to {class:flattening options, clip complex regions:true, convert strokes to outlines:true, convert text to outlines:true, flattening balance:100, gradient resolution:600, overprint:preserve, rasterization resolution:300}
end tell

Stitch lines created when transparency flattened in PDF/X1a export from ID

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? 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!

Hi Tony ,
This seems to be an InDesign issue .
Please report the same on the below mentioned link .
InDesign
Regards
Sukrit Dhingra

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!

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

Overprint issue, please help

Hi, I am very confused with the overprint issue in illustrator recently.
Figure 1 is a document that used to contain overprint objects; then I deleted all the layers/objects and drew a simple oval. As you can see from the Print Summary – it says there’s overprint object.
Figure 2 I created a brand new document and drew a simple star shape. You can see that there’s no overprint issue anymore.
I mean they’re both simple object without any overlapping involved, how come one has overprint issue and the other not? Is there any document settings I need to be aware of? Sometimes I have very complex shapes and there's no overprint issue, why? Please help.
P.S. There's no transparency or strange colour fill on the shape. And I just want to get rid of the overprint warning.
Figure 1:
Figure 2:

I can't replicate your issue. what do you see in your Attributes window (window> Attributes) when you select all? Are you having printing issues on your laser printer?
Also, if you make an object overprint and then delete it, the next object you make will overprint by default.

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

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

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

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

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)

Set 'transparency flattener presets' to [High Resolution]

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS9327D15E-A9FF-4698-BDA5-8791A891D061.ht ml
I am editing thousands of images that need to be exported as High Res .eps's.
Is there a way to make [High Resolution] the default rather than [Medium Resolution] ?

edit this file
user/(yourname)/library/preferences/adobe Ilustrator 4 settings/en us/Transparency Flattener Presets
Collection 2 is your default so I edited those values to match the screenshot below hope I got them right. Replace the code with below (keep a backup of original just in case)
/collection3 {
/attributes {
/AI9\ Mesh\ Rasterization\ Resolution 144.0
/AI9\ Output\ Rasterization\ Resolution 288.0
/AI10\ flattener\ raster-vector\ balance 75
/AI10\ flattener\ clip\ complex\ regions 0
/AI10\ flattener\ outline\ strokes 1
/AI10\ flattener\ outline\ text 0
/collectionName [ 16
5b4c6f77205265736f6c7574696f6e5d
/canEdit 0
/canDelete 0
/collection2 {
/attributes {
/AI9\ Mesh\ Rasterization\ Resolution 300.0
/AI9\ Output\ Rasterization\ Resolution 1200.0
/AI10\ flattener\ raster-vector\ balance 100
/AI10\ flattener\ clip\ complex\ regions 1
/AI10\ flattener\ outline\ strokes 0
/AI10\ flattener\ outline\ text 0
/collectionName [ 19
5b4d656469756d205265736f6c7574696f6e5d
/canEdit 0
/canDelete 0
/collection1 {
/attributes {
/AI9\ Mesh\ Rasterization\ Resolution 300.0
/AI9\ Output\ Rasterization\ Resolution 1200.0
/AI10\ flattener\ raster-vector\ balance 100
/AI10\ flattener\ clip\ complex\ regions 1
/AI10\ flattener\ outline\ strokes 0
/AI10\ flattener\ outline\ text 0
/collectionName [ 17
5b48696768205265736f6c7574696f6e5d
/canEdit 0
/canDelete 0
/Sketch {
/Version 1
/Description (Flattener catalog for AI11)
/Owner (AI11 Flattener Catalog Manager)
/NumberOfCollections 3
/CatalogName (AI11 Flattener Presets)
A different version I made with the help of Carlso Canto, worked for me to slide the vector balance to bitmapped . So hope the code above works for you.

Strange Transparency flattener preset appearing

I'm in AI CS3 and when I go to the transparency flattener presets, there's always one in there with japanese characters. I delete it and it comes back next time. What's up with that?
Randy

Thanks, to get this working in a server script, I ended up just programmatically creating the flattener preset, rather than worrying about the .flst files. (Java code below)
//Setup Transparency Flattener (if not in application)
FlattenerPreset flattenerPreset = app.getNamedChildFlattenerPreset("Test");
if (flattenerPreset == null) {
      flattenerPreset = app.addFlattenerPreset();
      flattenerPreset.setName("Test");
      flattenerPreset.setRasterVectorBalance(VariableTypeUtils.createLong(100));
      flattenerPreset.setLineArtAndTextResolution(2400.0);
      flattenerPreset.setGradientAndMeshResolution(400.0);
      flattenerPreset.setConvertAllTextToOutlines(false);
      flattenerPreset.setConvertAllStrokesToOutlines(false);
      flattenerPreset.setClipComplexRegions(false);
pdfPreset.setAppliedFlattenerPreset(flattenerPreset);

Installing Transparency Flattener Preset for Indesign Server CS4

I'm trying to figure out how to install a transparency flattener preset for InDesign Server CS4.
I can see how they are installed for the InDesign app. Edit -> Transparency Flattener Presets...
But I'm not sure which directory to install these on for the server.
I've seen a post that mentions:
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\Version 6.0\en_US\Transparency Flattener Presets
/Users/<UserName>/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 6.0/en_US/Transparency Flattener Presets
for the Desktop version. But when I place files here even for the CS4 Desktop, they don't seem to show up in the UI.
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks,
Dennis

Thanks, to get this working in a server script, I ended up just programmatically creating the flattener preset, rather than worrying about the .flst files. (Java code below)
//Setup Transparency Flattener (if not in application)
FlattenerPreset flattenerPreset = app.getNamedChildFlattenerPreset("Test");
if (flattenerPreset == null) {
      flattenerPreset = app.addFlattenerPreset();
      flattenerPreset.setName("Test");
      flattenerPreset.setRasterVectorBalance(VariableTypeUtils.createLong(100));
      flattenerPreset.setLineArtAndTextResolution(2400.0);
      flattenerPreset.setGradientAndMeshResolution(400.0);
      flattenerPreset.setConvertAllTextToOutlines(false);
      flattenerPreset.setConvertAllStrokesToOutlines(false);
      flattenerPreset.setClipComplexRegions(false);
pdfPreset.setAppliedFlattenerPreset(flattenerPreset);

Transparency flattener/overprint issue?

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