Customer question about Flattening that I can't answer....

[prepress_brillance_43]

Here is what she asked me...>

"When we flatten
transparency on files with drop shadows and glows, sometimes it creates a
hairline white box around the effect. I can see it on the PDF at some
magnifications, but not others - like if I zoom up on the area as far as
possible, the line disappears. I'm always concerned that it's going to
print with the line. Can you tell me whether this is something I even need
to worry about, or is there a different setting for flattening transparency
that will prevent this from happening?"

Anyone seen or dealt with this and know what I can tell her about when she flattens?... Thanks.

Here's a Corona for yer help........

[seetomtype]

43,

Get one of her files and try to print it via laser printer, and then through
your rip. It is a known on screen issue, but many times the white line won't
print. From what I understand it's more of a PITA for on screen applications
than for print.

Hope it helps, and good luck.

[benkelly]

I ran across an Illdistructor 9 file the other day that PDFed with both phantom and real white lines. The phantom lines dissappeared at max enlargement in Acrobat, the real ones did not. I had to RIP the file and check it with Master File Editor to be sure. My point is, don't dismiss them as on screen artifacts, even though most of the time that's all they are.

Thanks for the beer :!:
Does the white line show up on the psd file? If it does . . . . gues what > it's gonna print more than likely. If not you should be okay regardless of the preview in Acrobat. This is from my own experience with the same issues.

vee

[prepress_brillance_43]

Thanks guys.

_vee> good suggestion(open in photoshop and see if it shows there), I had a file a few weeks back that had these lines appearing when RIPed and I thought I would fix it >"a la raster" in photoshop> wrong 8O the lines showed there too, I ended up having to use the clone tool and manually fix the file. ops: :twisted:

hey 43,
I just realized you weren't refering to a photoshop file, but transparency in general. I read "flatten" and immediately thought photoshop :!: That was the reason for my question: "Does the white line show up on the psd file?" In this case I would run it through the RIP to determine if it will print or not. Sorry for the lack-of attention to detail. :cry:

vee

[edgar]

Originally Posted by prepress_brillance_43

Here is what she asked me...>

"When we flatten
transparency on files with drop shadows and glows, sometimes it creates a
hairline white box around the effect. I can see it on the PDF at some
magnifications, but not others - like if I zoom up on the area as far as
possible, the line disappears. I'm always concerned that it's going to
print with the line. Can you tell me whether this is something I even need
to worry about, or is there a different setting for flattening transparency
that will prevent this from happening?"

Anyone seen or dealt with this and know what I can tell her about when she flattens?... Thanks.

Working with Trueflow you don't need to flatten transparencies in a manual way. Only adjust transparency settings in Document layout, set it up to High resolution.

I don't have had problems with transparencies, only when they don't set their files to High resolution in transparency settings.

[prepress_brillance_43]

_vee> its cool. I had already mentioned that to her anyway. Because it does work to check false lines like that in Photoshop(of course the rasterized file gets trashed and the pdf gets used, but it is a way to check......

edgar> thanks for the help, I have started to see already that you can pretty much throw anything(even chicken shit) at Trueflow and it creates diamonds(or chicken salad). I needed an explanation to give customer about what she was seeing in the pdf. It seems it is just a preview in acrobat issue.

[David]

Originally Posted by prepress_brillance_43

Here is what she asked me...>

"When we flatten
transparency on files with drop shadows and glows, sometimes it creates a
hairline white box around the effect. I can see it on the PDF at some
magnifications, but not others - like if I zoom up on the area as far as
possible, the line disappears. I'm always concerned that it's going to
print with the line. Can you tell me whether this is something I even need
to worry about, or is there a different setting for flattening transparency
that will prevent this from happening?"

Anyone seen or dealt with this and know what I can tell her about when she flattens?... Thanks.

Here's a Corona for yer help........

Okay, here goes.....
When you flatten a file, the app (I'm assuming we're talking Indesign here?) will take an image and split it up into a bunch of little pieces. The gaps (white lines) are where these pieces touch each other. some will not print, some will, depending on what they have done (as far as what is layered and how it was layered, spot color or cmyk). I can (using our ESKO-Graphics Barco software) view these flattened files in wire-frame mode, and can see hundreds of split images. Some times we have to go back and change the flattening settings and adjust the slider to all raster or more to the vector side (once again, depending on how the file was layered and the type of transparency that was applied) to minimize the white line effect.
Have her try adjusting the flattener settings in the app to either raster or vector and see which gives her the best results. She may even try re-layering the object to see if that has any effect on it.

Good luck with this,
David

PS. I always like my carona in a "frosty"mug, thank you!

[prepress_brillance_43]

Thanks David, That's the kind of info I was looking for, I'll pass this along to my customer...