Display issues with Acrobat

[texasjoe]

Does anyone else ever have PDF files that look flawed on the monitor, but print out okay?

I see faint outlines of text/graphic boxes and it seems to be more prevalent when transparency/feathering is used.

Are there any solutions? It's kind of annoying not being able to see what I get.

On a PC, I'm using ID 2.0 and Acrobat Professional 6.0.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Joe

 

[jimoblak]

What display settings/preferences are you using in Acrobat?

The faint outlines are called 'stitching' and are often resolved by adjusting the display settings in Acrobat.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[texasjoe]

Jimoblak,

Can you be more specific?

Edit - Preferences - ?

 

[jimoblak]

Hint: you need to be smooth

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[texasjoe]

Under smoothing I checked smooth text, smooth line art, and smooth images (all 3 checked) Any other hints?

 

[texasjoe]

Under smoothing I checked smooth text, smooth line art, and smooth images (all 3 checked) Any other hints?

 

[jimoblak]

Nope - - that should do it. Are you still seeing the stitching?

You might also try menu option: Advanced>Overprint Preview

The only other issue I can imagine is how InDesign produces the PDF. Can you describe the profile/settings for PDF export from InDesign?

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[texasjoe]

Re:You might also try menu option: Advanced>Overprint Preview

When I open Acrobat, I don't see a menu called "advanced" Can you tell me how to get to this screen?

Re:The only other issue I can imagine is how InDesign produces the PDF. Can you describe the profile/settings for PDF export from InDesign?

We print to PDF using Acrobat 7 -- settings press quality.

It's a puzzler -- and it happens on all four of our computers at the office.

 

[jimoblak]

The menu options that I see are in the Pro version. Standard may appear quite differently.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[texasjoe]

Oops! My error! When I double-clicked the file on the home computer, Reader opened up -- On the machine at the office, Acrobat Pro is what opens up on default.

I opened the file in Acrobat 6 Pro and checked overprint preview. This lessened the visibility of the stitching, but it's still there.

Thanks again for your help with this. I think I just may need to learn to live with seeing a little stitching at the edges. As long as it doesn't print, that's the main thing, right?

It just worries me seeing it on the screen -- makes me think that it might print, but it hasn't.

Joe

 

[Triska]

Alright... I'm not 'feeling' the the response to TexasJoes original question, it's just not all there...

Joe asked: Are their any solutions? It's kind of annoying not being able to see what I get.

You said it Joe.

Indeed, a real solution will allow us to educate ourselves, make a change or modification to our settings or workstyle, make a better product and then move on with our lives. A work-around would consist of: Blaming Adobe, or our own ignorance, and putting a little sign at the beginning of every .pdf file " Please turn off 'Smooth Line Art, then back on Next page"

With this particular issue I have yet to read a solution. Changing a setting in Acrobat Reader is a WORK-AROUND, since in the following case it is reliant on the END-USER to make the fix.

The 'stitching' as it is so appropriately called, looks to me, and for good reason... like Antialiasing. I'm confident this is true since the actual 'work-around' to make the stitching dissapear is not 'to be more smooth,' which is funny (If that were the case then I could caress my computer and it would run faster.) Rather, I learned about a year ago that the only trick to making that damn stitching go away (temporarily) is to UNcheck smooth Line Art in Edit > Prefs > Page Display (7.0pro) (similar in 6).

Designer:"Oh, and by the Way Bob, before you look at that perfect design of mine, can you just go to Edit > Preferences > Page display... and fiddle with those Smooth thingies there...?"
Bob: "What?"

NOW... that plain sucks, because in my case, I am encrypting my .pdf and restricting printing to a password I may or may not give my client (It's my portfolio afterall.) Meanwhile, the .pdf is 300dpi, 11.5 Mb, with placed/linked .AI, .PDFs, .jpegs etc, There are light DROP SHADOWS to give that 'paper effect' all over the place and a few Transparent fills here and there floating over and under other objects (usually contained in the original files.) In order to maximize the ON SCREEN quality and look, I never used a raster image if I had a Vector version in .pdf or .ai. to use instead.

At any rate, the output from .INDD needs to be near perfect.... period, and given the quality of the placed/linked files (all of which I might add support Adobe's 'Live Transparency') you would think the on-screen presentation in the newest Acrobat 7 would finally kick ass.

Nope. Just like 6. It isn't great at all when it comes to smoothing, which I might add, I consider necessary for .AI files in PDFs To attain the smoothest vectors when a user Zooms in.
1. End user should not need to change anything in Acrobat.
2. No combination of smooth Text / Line art (off) / Images is going to work for every page, in every situation.
3. End user should not need to change anything in Acrobat.

I have read the .pdf guide on transparency flattening published by Adobe... and you all should too.. .it's a short and informative read.

http://www.indesignusergroup.com/tips/tutorials/guides/transparency_design.pdf

1 Mb +
or on my site:

http://www.elucidesign.com/Temp/INDD_AI_CS_TansparencyDesignGuidelinesFromAdobe.pdf

This is also a good read on the Transparency Flattener Plugin in AI10 and now previewer in 11 (which is nearly the same as INDD):

http://www.elucidesign.com/Temp/TransparencyFlatteningInAI_10and_11.pdf

1 Mb +

In order to appreciate the strangeness of this problem...the concepts in the above documents are useful.

If you notice in my example file:

the text boxes (which .pdf generates to compress by line, I believe, and maintain kerning) are what are being antialiased by the 'Smooth Line Art' Setting of Acrobat. (screenshot taken in Acrobat 7.0pro)

That's obviously ridiculous... and chosen as the worst (best) case for example... No visual designer needs to care HOW the .pdf format compresses or tags text until it suddenly becomes visible on screen. Preposterous! Of course you can see smoothing going on all over the place:

1. Around the frame of raster images with drop shadows. [A transparency effect, of course]
2. Inside transparent areas of .AI files
3. Around text boxes generated by .pdf. [Normally transparent]

So, TRANSPARENT Objects are the problem right? Right ! Because, apparently the 'Smooth Line Art' routine is sometimes applied to all vectors contained in the file, text boxes, frames, you name it!

So, where does that leave us? Beats me... that's why I posted.

P.S. Those of you with INDD CS should use the transparency flattener preview and tweak the Transparency Flattener Styles to see if some headway can be made. I'll bet that Outlined text (AI) isn't going to antialias (fail) b/c the containing box is removed by doing so... but the Frames themselves? Crappy.

Peace be to all and may we slay this dragon soon... my hiring depends on it.
I'll post with updates. And congratulations to anyone who bore my rant this far.
Sef.

It is alright to decorate construction, but never construct decoration. - Pugin, on Arch.

http://www.elucidesign.com

 

[Triska]

Alright: this info reiterates part of what I've said... It is the anti-aliasing nature of Acrobat. But it isn't the solution. The following has some great info about white boxes from Spot colors as well

http://www.nickhodge.com/mne.php?mcid=1359

...

So... after hours of researching, rasterizing, tweaking and exporting, I've come to the sad conclusion that Acrobat is currently incapable of treating Text, Line Art, and Images each with the highest quality smoothing routines, when Transparency is involved. (And tell me, when ISN'T transparency involved?)

1. It is interesting to note that .INDD itself ALSO displays 'stitching' around certain objects within its own workspace.
2. The .INDD help states that stitching commonly pops up between intersections between Raster / Vector areas after The Transparency Flatteners have been run... I.e. .PDF. Open a Complex .pdf in .AI and it's obvious that the Flattener has a tough job to do. Et Voila:

Obviously, by automatically compositing all layers together at once, (flattening,) while considering BOTH Vectors and Rasters, text outlines, and complex regions, the Flatteners in .INDD and .AI have a difficult, well nigh impossible job to do. I started regrouping up me layers and selectively rastering groups from the bottom up to "Flatten" it to some degree myself, to reduce the load on the AutoFlattener, but quickly learned that when a large transparent object is in the foreground, partially obscuring the objects below.... all hell will break loose in complexity when the Flattener runs. However, when the transparency is toward the back of the layer stack, it was possible in my first example to rasterize a translucent box onto the photo backround in .PSD then drop it back into .INDD allowing as much of the text to float as vectors as possible.

What this means:

1. Your ability to control the 'stitching' depends on the particular ordering and composition of the file itself.
2. Running Flatteners on complex vector files with lots of transparency are a lost cause. I could achieve better results by running pathfinders and converrting semi- transparent areas to tints....manually in other words.... and may some day!
3. I will now usually have a Layered version of an .indd file and a Flattened file (done manually) when there absolutely CANNOT be stitching over the image.
4. No combination I've found yet looks best.... sadly.

-- Rasters are obviously pixelly when zoomed in Acrobat (Green Arrow)
-- Trans. Flattened Files (Read, ANY .pdf.) will sometimes exhibit stitching (Red Arrow.)
-- Turning off 'Smooth Line Art' in Acrobat is a workaround that ruins the former quality of the rest of the image but removes the stitching (Red Arrow.)

You know? Let's here it for bloatware! Lets add more features! Lets make sure that it's not backward compatible! Speed. Power. . Lets conflict our settings!

Ah well... time to move on and pray Adobe straightens out it's anti-aliasing selection routines. OBJECT LEVEL, NOT TAG LEVEL people. Who the heck wants to 'smooth' an invisible text frame and thusly make it visible? No one.

It is alright to decorate construction, but never construct decoration. - Pugin, on Arch.

http://www.elucidesign.com

 

[texasjoe]

Wow. Thanks for the "elaborate" response!
You have obviously given this a great deal of thought.

We shall hold out hope that the next version of Acrobat will solve this annoying problem.

I'm sure the engineers at Adobe are working on it while we speak! (I hope.)

Thanks again, for posting!

Joe