Trueflow issues!!!!

[prepress_brillance_43]

maybe by manually changing it to outlines trueflow was able to interpret it correctly and the file you did not create outlines on, when trueflow did it's flattening/rastering thing it did so at a lower than acceptable dpi, which then you would most likely be right, its a trueflow setting(i think). Sorry about the "in front" and "behind" thing, I thought you werent understanding what I was getting at....

[SeanDawson]

Prepress_brilliance_43 - I would like to see this file that you are referring to with type layered behind the trans object.

Please send email to sdawson@screenusa.com or send email and I will provide FTP info.

Regards,
Sean
ScreenUSA

[prepress_brillance_43]

OK. here it is. first the view of it with it selected in acro with pitstop. see the purple outlines, those letters have been rastered, the rest are still just outlines...

the 2nd image is same thing in wireframe mode.

the 3rd image is the file as it previews(it is much easier to see the "thinner" letters that are rastered on the plate. if you zoom in enough in acro it looks normal, it does NOT come out on the plate or proof normal.
it is my belief that this happens because of the drop shadow being in front of the type. what do the rest of you think?


alrighty wolves let's hear you chew on this one. :P

[SeanDawson]

This file has been flattened and is causing this.

Run without flattening.

Sean
ScreenUSA

[prepress_brillance_43]

I understand it has been flattened, that is what is taught to designers to do and then they send these pdf's in this way.... I have tried to get the art dept to change their habits and they insist they cannot change production and other printers in town dont have the same issues.

[AgentCooper]

What application was that art built in?

[prepress_brillance_43]

Illustrator CS. those pics are what I view with Acro 7 and pitstop.

Agent, is this the same as the issue you have been refering to?...

[AgentCooper]

Kind of...we have had strange type rasterization similar to that but I haven't isolated the problem with type sitting next to a drop shadow etc.

One of the things that I find inteseting is that it seems to me that something in the system has a hard time understanding that type is type and not a placed image. Why would it do that? Just because the type is near the image or even a masked area it shouldn't think it's part of that.

As far as the "flattened" and "unflattened" thing goes I must be missing something there. If it's an illustrator document it's not "flattened". It's mostly vectorized art combined with placed images. Fully editable etc. It's not like its a photoshop layered image that was "flattened". I understand that all files regardless of what application created them eventually get "flattened" but that doesn't always happen out of the application.

For example. The file you have shown here was created in illustrator. If I turned it into a PDF and then re-opened that PDF in illustrator I would still have "unflattened" art.

[prepress_brillance_43]

True. what sean is saying(i think) is that when the artist created this file and added the drop shadow, they then went and flattened. Probably because they got a warning about it when trying to save the pdf out of Illy.

This is a great discussion, because I, too, have never been able to really tell what/why it does this.

from what I have been told, I have read, or through discussions in PPF, I have come to the conclusion that when type sits behind the transparent effect(ie drop shadow, but there are others as well) and then the file, or even just the placed image is flattened it interprets the type as a part of the image and rasters it. Illy's manual even goes over this in the "working with transparency" section. but past that I dont understand it anymore than any of you either... sean is saying run the file "not flattened" but Illy has problems saving the pdf out if you dont flatten certain transparency.

Im still waiting for MattBeals to chime in on this discussion it has seemed to me in the past that he understands these things.

[AgentCooper]

True. what sean is saying(i think) is that when the artist created this file and added the drop shadow, they then went and flattened. Probably because they got a warning about it when trying to save the pdf out of Illy.

This is the part that is confusing me. Even though a drop shadow is used and illustrator considers it a transparency you still shouldn't flatten the artwork. Just either save it out as an illustrator eps file which you can distill with acrobat trueflow settings, or export it out with the trueflow settings (PDF) directly out of illustrator. There is no need to flatten the file in either case.