Comments on: Change Default Drop Shadow Settings

By: Markville

Markville — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:37:34 +0000

Just noticed that every object in CS3 are applied drop shadows in the “effect”. When turn it off manually, the shadows are not showing on screen but the “drop shadow” effect are still there with the”knock out” option checked. Any one know how to fix this? Thanks.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:24:42 +0000

Almee, when printing documents with transparency (including drop shadows), or when making Acrobat 4 files or EPS files, make sure the Transparency Flattener is set to High Resolution. You should not see any lines when you actually print. However, also make sure you have updated to the 5.01 version.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:06:39 +0000

I agree, I’ve been working with InDesign CS3 for a couple months now and every time I use a drop shadow I immediately change the opacity and distance! Now I have my normal settings as default.

I have noticed lots of other issues with InDesign drop shadows though… when exporting as a pdf or eps I get all kinds of crazy white lines and or distortions of crisp vector objects. Some of which actually showed up in the printing of our last publication (which I didn’t think would) I wonder if anyone has a good solution for this? I found a quick fix solution but it would be nice to know if there is any way to stop this in InDesign.

By: Dolly

Dolly — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:29:27 +0000

“for saner shadow defaults” has really made me laugh…

By: Noreen

Noreen — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:27:19 +0000

Thank you, thank you, Anne-Marie! I’ve been searching for an answer to the “ugly default drop shadow” dilemma for months now. What was Adobe thinking?

By: Katja

Katja — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 06:41:35 +0000

I just switched from Publisher to InDesign and it’s a little intimidating still, given the power and myraid bells and whistles. I saw some nice shadow effects on a few templates, but couldn’t figure out how to do them…know I know! Thanks!

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:12:08 +0000

FWIW = For what it’s worth.

By: Max Steinmetz

Max Steinmetz — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:29:47 +0000

Thank you Anne-Marie! I’d been using an object style via function key/Keyboard shortcut (as you and David have indicated in the past) to handle this annoyance.

Question: What does FWIW mean?
-M

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:23:52 +0000

Dan, that only changes the default setting for graphic frames (in CS2 and CS3 at least) you create from then on. Actually, it adds an override to the default [Basic Graphic Style]. Styles … you can’t get away from ‘em!

It doesn’t change default drop shadow settings for placed images or text frames, as far as I can tell.

FWIW with the method I explained above, you don’t have to apply any object styles for the new defaults to work. (With the exception of shadows for placed images … would love to find a solution for this.)

By: Dan Wolfgang

Dan Wolfgang — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:11:48 +0000

For those of us who aren’t religious about applying object styles, the old PageMaker trick works, too: with no documents open, set your defaults. Those defaults get applied to new documents.