How do you do a knockout of the image below another image

[damienflanders]

I have an illustration i've done in Illustrator that consists of type surround by some vector shapes to give it an added 2nd stroke. Beneath that is a starburst and then below that is a green vector box.

I brought the image to a printer to get a laser copy done and the the burst is showing through the letters. It's a white starburst.

The only thing i can think of is, that maybe the burst is on top of the letters would cause that, but it's not. Is there a way to do a knockout so that the letters and the surrounding shapes that are grouped to it will knock out the white starburst AND the large vector box at the bottom (because i think that is bleeding through as well.)

 

[apepp]

...in printing terms black ink is often best to overprint other colors where possible...

...in your example you need to check the overprint settings in the attributes pallette, this pallette controls overprints for both fill and strokes of selected objects...

...the other area to watch for is transparency effects such a darken or multiply in the transparency pallette applied to selected objects as these effects also act as overprinting...

...if you find that these settings mentioned above are in fact not being used then your print provider is using a workflow that is defaulting 100% black to overprint regardless of what the source artwork is set to do...

...I also assume you are supplying PDF directly from illustrator here and not some other workflow...

andrew

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http://www.apepp.info

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[damienflanders]

in your example you need to check the overprint settings in the attributes palette, this palette controls overprints for both fill and strokes of selected objects"

So, in the attribute box, do i want to check the "overprint Fill" and the "overprint stroke" boxes?

The transparency is on "normal"

Yes, it's illustrator direct to PDF.

I had other other designs that look similar, where the background vector box (in some cases red) and the white starburst did not bleed through in any of the other designs. Only this one.

 

[apepp]

>>> So, in the attribute box, do i want to check the "overprint Fill" and the "overprint stroke" boxes?

...for colors to not overprint these should be turned off, by default they are always off unless otherwise specified...


andrew

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http://www.apepp.info

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[apepp]

...the only way that white star background can appear to be showing through is if black ink is overprinting, the areas of black that hit the green would have a darker density of ink...

...anywhere the black hits white areas will appear lighter as it is only black ink on top of white paper, with no ink underneath...

andrew

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http://www.apepp.info

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[damienflanders]

I don't understand why this is happening at all. I've never seen this before. The transparency is set to opacity of 100%.
And again the in the attributes box it is unchecked in both overprint fill and overprint stroke.

I don't know what overprinting even means. What does it mean for the black to overprinting? Shouldn't it by default cancel out what is ever layered behind it?

I had it printed on a laser printer at the local copy place. Does a laser printer have an overprint feature?

 

[apepp]

...as mentioned if you are sure your objects do not have overprint turned on in illustrator then I suspect your print provider has a workflow that changes 100% black to overprint regardless of what the source artwork is set to, this can both be a safety measure and a curse because the majority of the time print providers like to ensure black always overprints, there are occasions (like yours) that this workflow doesn't help...

...feel free to send me the source artwork or PDF you sent them and I can give you a definitive answer, you can find my email link on my web page, (top right)...

andrew

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http://www.apepp.info

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[askIllustrator]

Choose File->Print. In the Output section, make sure your Mode is set to Composite. If Separations is set, your Overprint Black option is likely checked.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -Einstein