Losing transparency and colour when importing graphics

[soledadsister]

Hello. I am having real problems with InDesign (CS v 3.0). When I import EPS images with a transparent background, it fills in the bounding box area with block white. If I change the format to PSD, it does retain transparency but then it affects the appearance of the spot colour in the area beneath to a much darker colour which is no different to having the white fill at the end of the day. Also in PSD, it tends to look lower res.

If anybody could talk me through what to check for I'd be really greatful. I've spent hours going through books and on InDesign Help. I don't have a good knowledge of the InDesign settings, colour separations and flattening presets so the nearer an explanation comes to laymans terms would be much better for me.

Thanks for you time.

 

[apepp]

...are these eps graphics bitmaps from photoshop, if so then you will always get a white background as eps bitmaps don't support transparency...

...imported vector eps graphics will also always look to have a white background even when they haven't, the fix for that is to change the view settings to high quality (view > screen performance), or better would be to import a native illustrator file (.ai format) instead...

...graphics in layout apps often look low res and pixelated as it uses a proxy image to speed up display. So long as your placed graphic has sufficient resolution for high end output (typically 300dpi at actual size) then you should be fine. Reducing a graphic in a layout app will increase the resolution (which is OK), increasing a placed image will decrease the resolution so some forethought will need to be taken when doing that. For example a 300dpi image at 200% scaling will render it 150dpi on output...

...when you say the PSD image is making the spot color darker are you refering to print out, or pdf export preview in acrobat?...

...when exported to pdf you have the option to flatten any transparency (in Acrobat 1.3) in your document or to retain transparency (Acrobat 1.4 or higher). Printing to postscript always requires flattening of transparency...

..if exporting to PDF as 1.4 or higher then your print service provider will need to support flattening in the RIP, so best speak to them about that. If you do need to flatten to pdf then choose the PDFX-3 format. If you print to postscript then make sure you choose the high setting in the advanced tab under transparency flattening...

...be careful with small text below a transparent object (such as layered PSD, drop shadow and glow effects etc), as this leads to text being rasterized when flattened on output. The text that does end up as raster looks thicker than type not affected by transparent objects. The fix is to move the text above, or on a new layer (window > layers)...

...you can use the flattener preview (window > output > flattener preview) to check for problem areas. A page that has transparent objects will have an icon bottom right of the page icon in the pages palette...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...also if you flatten to acrobat 1.3 and you see a white background in acrobat, then you need to view the pdf in acrobat with overprint preview turned on (Acrobat 8 = advanced > print production > overprint preview)...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...and also when in acrobat using the output preview will allow you to check separations, much like in indesign separation preview (window > output > separation preview). This also enables overprint preview automatically...

Andrew

 

[soledadsister]

Thanks so much for your time and help. I'll give it good going through now.

Cheers.

 

[apepp]

...also ensure, as a force of habit, that transparency blend space in indesign is on cmyk...

edit > transparency blend space > document cmyk

Andrew