Prepressforums.com

rintcc · #1 (**permalink**) 07-27-2007, 07:55 AM

I know this problem has been around for a while. I noticed it using Acrobat 6, 7, and now it's even worse in CS3.

We generate pdfs as proofs prior to outputting plates. The L's and I's show up very thick on screen. If you zoom in close, then the type looks normal, and it all prints just fine. But I'm tired of trying to explain to clients to just ignore the thick L's and i's and that all will print just fine in the end. We've made pdfs in various ways, and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Is this just a glitch in Acrobat? Is there a way to fix this? My clients are constantly asking for reassurance that all will print correctly. I'm tired of this problem and would love a solution.

I looked for prior postings of this problem, but couldn't find any. I saw one item on the Adobe site, but there was no answer there.

Eyetech · #2 (**permalink**) 07-27-2007, 08:20 AM

Does this affect one font in particular or every font? Any chance of a screen grab?

seetomtype · #3 (**permalink**) 07-27-2007, 08:29 AM

I don't know of any way around this besides asking them to zoom in a little bit
and taking a closer look. Wouldn't they do the same if they thought something
looked a bit odd on a hard copy proof? Assuming they actually looked at it, that is.

It's mostly on san serif fonts, and vertical characters (i, I, l, ets...).

Ratbag · #4 (**permalink**) 07-29-2007, 04:02 PM

Sounds like the fonts have been converted to paths at some point, perhaps during flattening?
The result is that there is no font hinting because it's a path so acrobat cannot optimise the display of text... 'cos it's not text..

frailer · #5 (**permalink**) 07-29-2007, 10:29 PM

Happens when I send "optimised" proofs off as well. Gotta shrink'em cos our email attachment limit's a lousy 7Mb. Dunno whether it would happen if a "pre-shrunk" PDF were to be sent. Have always assumed its a screen res thing, whereby the screen render has to decide whether to go up a pixel or down a pixel. At low zoom levels it [rightly] goes up. As seetomtype says, you're pretty much locked in to asking them to zoom in for reassurance. Most people I send stuff to are using crapulous-level LCD monitors, too, which doesn't help.

David · #6 (**permalink**) 07-30-2007, 04:41 AM

We get this a lot when the type has been converted to outlines (as Ratbag stated). It's just a display issue, you have to zoom in just a smidge to get it to look correct.
And yes, I have also spent time on the phone explaining this to clients as well.
Asfar as I know, there is no fix for this.

cheers,
David

prepress_peon · #7 (**permalink**) 07-30-2007, 05:35 PM

It's definitely a glitch with Acrobat's display that happens if you have outlined text. If you go to Peferences > Page Display, and deselect Smooth line art, that'll fix it. Of course, now your text won't display nice and smooth.

I don't have Acrobat 8, is it still an issue? Guess not enough complaints if Adobe haven't fix it yet.

Ratbag · #8 (**permalink**) 07-30-2007, 09:47 PM

It's not something that can be fixed, and it's not a bug. When displaying paths on a low res device, like a monitor, antialiasing is used. Text is treated differently because fonts contain data called hinting which aligns type to the pixel grid, and antialias's according to the hinting. When you convert to paths that data is stripped away and it is now a shape. The text is displayed correctly as a path, but not as text (which because of hinting is optimised for readablility). When output at highres, say 2400/2540 dpi, it doesn't really matter because there are enough dots to reproduce the path accurately. Make sense?