Comments on: InDesignSecrets Podcast 022

By: InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Show Notes for Episode 23

InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Show Notes for Episode 23 — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:49:41 +0000

[...] Within hours of posting the long-overdue Episode 23, I finally started catching up on other things — including the second half of the latest episode of David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion’s InDesign Secrets podcast, which I had only heard the beginning of. [...]

By: theInDesigner » Show Notes for Episode 23

theInDesigner » Show Notes for Episode 23 — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:52:27 +0000

[...] Within hours of posting the long-overdue Episode 23, I finally started catching up on other things — including the rest of the lastest episode of David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion’s InDesign Secrets podcast, which I had only heard the very beginning of. To my extreme embarrassment, I discovered that for the first time since both of our podcasts started in November, we actually had overlapping topics. Oops! But the more I listened, the less horrified I felt. My latest episode discusses “safe” practices for output, covering the basic principles that will be your bullet-proof method for avoiding unexpected transparency-related problems on the printed page. David and Anne-Marie took that conversation to the next level, talking about newer, more sophisticated output devices and methods, spot color issues, and the Output Preview and Separations Preview features. So the credit goes to them for getting there first. If my latest video episode raises a lot of questions about these other features, definitely give < “http://indesignsecrets.com/indesignsecrets-podcast-022.php” TARGET=”_blank”>Episode 22 of InDesign Secrets a listen for more great information on this topic. Cat: [...]

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:43:34 +0000

Ultimately, however, if you’re printing finaly artwork on a laser or inkjet printer, the whole concept of a spot color simply doesn’t mean anything anyway, so converting to process is perfectly reasonable. There is, however, the question of using Lab colors instead of the CMYK colors… we’ll talk about that in Podcast 23.

By: Claudia McCue

Claudia McCue — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 05:57:22 +0000

Chad and Jean-Claude,
On my beloved Xerox Phaser 8400, I find that even converting to process and checking “Simulate Overprint” won’t eliminate the discoloration around a shadow. So far, using the “Print as Image” option out of Acrobat is the only way I’ve found to get clean output. Works on some other printers, as well. Of course, on an imagesetter or platesetter, you’d have to enable PostScript overprint to get correct output of the spot color content, but this should give you satisfactory desktop comps. It can result in slow printing, depending on content. But it’s better than misleading output.

NOTE: The “Print as Image” option is sticky: it will stay selected. So turn it off after the job so it doesn’t slow things down for you next time.

And thanks to Anne-Marie for such a splendid resource!

–Claudia

By: Chad

Chad — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:26:14 +0000

Thanks Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude for your excellent advice… and the joke.

I kinda figured I was stuck. It’s a good thing I don’t use spot colors very often and in the composite world they really aren’t necessary.

I’ll check out Claudia’s book when it comes out.

Now I off on vacation for four days.

Thanks again…. love the show

By: Jean-Claude Tremblay

Jean-Claude Tremblay — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:34:32 +0000

Chad, when you print to your composite printer, check the Simulate Overprint option above the Ink Manager button.

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:46:37 +0000

Re text and transparency … there is no secret per se. What some pre-press people know though is that while the type may look weird in proofs … that is, the type affected by transparency looks bolder than the rest … on press, it comes out fine. Something to do with the limitations of digital proofing. I believe the secret, if there is one, is that the printers are flattening at a resolution that matches their imagesetter … 2400 for example. But until the proofs are accurate to the final product in this regard, what designer will take that chance? That’s my question.

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:41:55 +0000

Hi Chad, how’s it hanging? Sorry couldn’t resist.

We were speaking (or at least I was speaking) of offset printing in particular. For digital color … where you send composite info to a toner-based printer … you’re right, it is the RIP that can’t quite get the overprinting right.

I checked with the guru of all things printing-related, my good friend Claudia McCue about your question. She said with a digital color printing workflow as you describe, the only way to get transparency printing over spot colors is to convert them to process as you describe. Even then, she said, some RIPs still show an artifact where the transparency interacts with the converted colors. In that case, she says the following will solve most problems:
1. From IDCS2, export to PDFX/1-a, and in the Ink Manager there, turn on Convert Spots to Process.
2. Open the PDF in Acrobat, choose Print, click the Advanced button and turn on “Print as Image”.

She says in this way, you’re using Acrobat as the RIP.

Claudia’s book, Real World Print Production, should be coming out soon. It’s sorely needed by anyone in our industry, can’t wait for my copy to arrive!

By: Chad

Chad — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:49:10 +0000

Ok, enough about the quizzler, puzzler, quiz puzzler, … let’s talk about transparency, spot colors and text. I was one of those who thought you could not use spot colors and had to keep your text on top.

I do see how the colors separate correctly in the separations preview, but separations don’t mean much to someone who prints to laser and inkjet printers all day.

I use a CREO SPIRE RIP v2.1 on a Xerox 3535 laser and a HP5000 (internal RIP) and both give me fits when I try to use transparency over a spot color.

I get a the dreaded box effect around all objects that use transparency. I checked the RIP settings and every option is checked for overprint. I even click on simulate overprint from InDesign and I still get the same issue. The only way to see it correctly on the printed page is to convert all spots to process in the ink manager, which defeats the purpose of using a spot color… doesn’t it? I take it the problem is really in RIP?

Thanks for the great shows!
Chad

By the way,what is the secret for getting type under a transparent object to print correctly (no thicker strokes)? You hinted a solution on your last epidsode but never disucussed it fully.

By: Kenneth G.

Kenneth G. — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:29:07 +0000

Hi Guys,
Thanks again for another informative and fun podcast. The answer to your question of the week is: The three letters not used as keyboard shortcut letter in the tools palette are: Q U & Y.
Thanks again!