InDesign functions ripping?

[BRosengren]

InDesign concerns...

I've heard that the drop shadow feature does not Rip if you have built a CMYK document with a fifth color (fifth color being a pantone) when you send it out for offset printing.

Also, does anyone know if there are any other known problems with 5-color jobs that have been built in InDesign?

I've used Quark for 12 years and I'm the guinea pig for InDesign. We're an In-house creative department at a large corporation and produce thousands of print jobs per year. But we're sick of Quark lately and InDesign is looking pretty good to us right now.

Any feedback, positive or negative would be extremely helpful.

Thank You!

 

[jimoblak]

Applying transparency effects (such as drop shadows, placed PSDs, transparent graphics, and soft edges) do require a few rules. Layered elements must be of the same color model (no mixing RGB & CMYK & PANTONE in transparent layers). This does not mean that you cannot have a mix of colors - - they just cannot overlap using transparency. If you could not do the transparency effect in Photoshop, don't expect it in InDesign.

There is some good documentation about transparency effects of the newest Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat on adobe.com. There's a few PDF files buried in there somewhere that are an excellent primer for transparency.

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

 

[MarcusStringer]

And, correct me if I'm wrong Jimoblak,
but to use transparency you also need to using Level 3 Postscript.
i.e Acrobat 5 or 6 and also the output RIP at the pre-press house needs to be level 3 as well.

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[jimoblak]

Ideally - yes a level 3 RIP is ideal - - a true level 3 Adobe RIP is best. You can still get by with older output devices (even PCL) by managing the transparency flattening capabilities within InDesign - - but this can bog down your client/desktop computer as it flattens/rasterizes the design before passing off to the output device.

The flattener and separation previews offered in Creative Suite are reason enough for anyone in prepress to upgrade to CS.

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

 

[BRosengren]

Thanks for your answers guys! Very helpful.

I found the separation preview and have been wondering why no one ever did that before. I've been an Art Director for most of my 22 year career, but also have 2 years of color stripping experience (and ran a Chief 15 printing press part time at night for a year or so), so the separation preview says alot to me.

One more question though... how do you flatten an InDesign file and what file format do you end up with? An eps? Or is it just a flattened InDesign native file. Is that the same as embedding all images?

Thanks

 

[jimoblak]

InDesign documents always remain unflattened in the INDD format. InDesign optionally flattens your work when exporting to PDF, EPS and as print output. If printing to PostScript level 3, InDesign exports the unflattened data.

While it is not necessarily the same as embedding images, the result of flattening is as difficult to edit. A flattened EPS or PDF document will break up images into smaller pieces to achieve the transparency effects. This output is rarely editable when opening back in Illustrator or Acrobat. This is why flattening is best done as the absolute final step in the RIP.

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

 

[Pixelchik]

Jimoblak,

I'm fairly new at ID. Can you flatten the INDD file and keep it in the INDD format? and how? I usually send my printers the press ready PDF, but will eventually send out a native INDD file.

 

[carlow]

Hi pixelchik,

As Jimoblack suggest the flattening will be done when your printer makes the films and he flattens your original file.

carlow