Drop Shadow problems

[WintersBooks]

Hi,

I am having a problem when adding a drop shadow to text. It looks fine on the screen, but when I print the document the background color in the text block (or blocks) with the drop shadow(s) is a different shade than the rest of the document. Any thoughts?

Thanks!!!!

Also, the same type of problem is happening when I place graphics with irregular borders in a document with a colored background. Even though the background color appears fine on the screen, it prints with a rectangle box in a different shade around the graphic.

 

[Eggles]

This is a commonly reported problem on various forums. The simplest solution is to ensure that the background colour is NOT a spot colour - it must be CMYK. It's something to do with how the printer (not an offset press) has to convert spot to CMYK, and if there is any overlying transparency (which is part of a drop shadow) then the colours are interpreted by the printer differently.

This usually works for me but I have had several stubborn pages where it didn't. Another solution is to export to a PDF (and I think it has to be a PDF-1Xa) which flattens the transparency and then print your ID doc from the PDF.

If this still doesn't work, then give up and get rid of the drop shadows, which I had to do to several pages in a recent document, but not all. The drop shadows worked fine on some pages but not others. Never did figure out why.