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• • May 3, 2011 at 6:15 pm #59490
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    I'm having trouble with PDFs output from InDesign (CS5, 7.0.4). I produce 48 – 64 page catalogues for a clothing company and a common aspect of the design is to lay a white box set to 85% opacity over an image, with text on top of that. Pretty straightforward so far. I output a complete copy of the catalogue for the client to proof read prior to going to print. The problem is that sometimes the white boxes mysteriously don't display in the PDF – but only in about the last third of the pages.
    So in the latest version of the catalogue I'm doing for the client the transparency shows up in the PDF up to page 31 and then the next time the same transparency effect is used on page 42 its simply not there and the text is sitting straight on the photo, and consequently unreadable. My clumsy workaround is to make all the white boxes that are misbehaving 100% and explain to the client what is happening – they're a good client and get it, but this isn't really ideal!
    I've experimented with different PDF export settings but get the same problem. Another consequence of this is that when I produce final artwork I have to output to EPS, and then distill to PDF otherwise I have the same problem in the final artwork.

  • May 4, 2011 at 6:21 am #59491
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Possible that the problem pages are on top of spot colors? Perhaps you need to turn on Overprint Preview?

    What version of PDF are you using? Acrobat 4 (flattens transparency)? Acrobat 6 (doesn't flatten)?

  • May 4, 2011 at 5:25 pm #59499
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi David. Nope, no spot colours, everything is CMYK. I did try the Overprint Preview (I'm assuming you meant the Overprint Preview in InDesign?) but it looks OK in InDesign – and of course you can't set white, or should I say “Paper” to overprint. I'm using Acrobat 9.4.4. The PDF export settings are set to Acrobat 5 compatibility, but this problem persists regardless of the Acrobat level – I also tried outputting all the different PDF/X standards to no avail.
    Its an odd issue – all the semi-opaque boxes are created the same way (use the rectangle tool, fill with Paper/white, set to 85% opacity), they're on the same layer – I can't see anything different from the ones that reproduce correctly in the PDF and the ones that mysteriously don't. The only consistent factor is the problem happens towards the end of a multi-page document – this issue has occurred ever since I upgraded from CS3 to CS5.

  • May 4, 2011 at 5:41 pm #59500
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Sounds really frustrating. Perhaps just a bug somewhere. All documents, or just one or two? Perhaps export to IDML and open the IDML to clean out weirdness in the file format?

  • May 4, 2011 at 7:47 pm #59501
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Nice tip on the IDML file – problem fixed, cheers! Another benefit is the InDesign file size has gone from over 1GB to about 100MB, so obviously the file had a *lot* of weirdness lurking. Doing regular “Save As” obviously isn't enough to clear that out. Thanks!

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