Halftone trouble -Illustrator, InDesign and HP

[Sivendel]

Does anyone have experience with Separation Setup / Postscript / Halftone and HP?


I am having difficulty with halftone printing for a new HP Deskjet 9680 in Illustrator 10 and InDesign 2. I've selected the HP PPD file and have tried lpi's from 5 to 120 and they all look the same - no dots, just normal looking splatter.

Basic problem... I can't get Illustrator to print in halftone dots and InDesign doesn't print at all (just gives me a "ding" when done printing -no error message or pop-up...). HP blames the Adobe software (including the postscript driver) while Adobe expects me to pay in order for them to “look into it.”

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[jmgalvin]

Have you tried creating a PDF(version 5/6 compatible with X-3 enabled) and printing from that?

You will find that Indesign 3 is leaps and bounds above 2. It's worth the upgrade. There are generally far fewer rip problems.

 

[Sivendel]

Yeah, same trouble with a PDF. It seems that HP screwed me as I finally got an "expert" to clarify that the 9680 only has a Postscript "emulator" - not the real deal. (Of course, this is after weeks of tech "experts", thus putting me over my return policy...)

Thanks for the tip, and I will have to check out 3.0. Out of curiosity, is Illustrator CS and Photoshop CS also that much better than 10 and 6, respectively?

Thanks again.

 

[jmgalvin]

On printing: You might try creating a PDF and deselecting Allow Postscript to override PDF, Allow Postscrip X objects, and use Prologue and epilogue PS. Then try printing that. I don't know what version of Acrobat you have, but 6 (CS) gives you one heck of a lot of print output options, and it also has separations prieview and preflight checking (more powerful preflighting than ID)

The big advantage to Illustrator CS is that it has WYSIWYG text menus (why they couldn't put that in Indesign is beyond me). The text controls are the same as in ID CS, so you're working the same stuff. Illustrator pdf export still stinks (Adobe even says so on their support site). I either save as an eps or print a ps file and then run stuff through Distiller.

Photoshop CS has a file browser for photos - making it very easy to find your stuff. I think that feature has saved me mucho dollars in formerly wasted time. It also has good PDF export.

I really like Acrobat Pro 6 (bundled in the Creative Suite expensive one). I have to assemble quite a few programs - with ads from companies. Virtually all now are sent to me in PDF, and I find manipulating them in Acrobat Pro to be the easiest way to do any tweaking. I'm not familiar with any lighter versions of Acrobat, so I can't tell you about them.

I think the real advantage is the whole Creative Suite thing. Everything just works together. I don't know if Adobe still has the "upgrade" deal from Photoshop, but I think I paid $750 for the whole Creative Suite Pro based on that deal. Even the full price is not that bad considering what it includes. You will find Indesign CS to be light years better than 2.