Off White Color Printing instead of "paper" white

[lmarshall]

I am creating multiple documents in Photoshop. They all have a white background, but because I want to print these posters into sets (various ones printed together easier to mail out to people because I'm going to mail out as they get printed). I imported (placed) each of them into InDesign and exported them into a PDF.

When I go to print the PDF there is a off white color that gets printed where it should be white. I don't want to have to trim these posters (over 1000 all together), so there has to be a to print these posters without the white background changing colors on me right?? I've also tried to setup the Photoshop files so that they have a transparent background, and re import them in to Indesign and export as a pdf, but they still have the off white color where it should be the paper "white" color. Any suggestions?

I have Adobe CS Suite, Reader 7.0, and I'm printing on a HP Designjet 5500. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jmgalvin]

Assume you're running photoshop in cmyk mode so that white equals 0-0-0-0 since you're printing of a designjet. Also make sure that any color profiles in both ID and PS are the same or don't color manage in either app.

In photoshop select the white with magic wand and make it a clipping path to create transparency. If you're not familiar with clipping paths, look it up in photoshop help. It's quite easy. That should give you your transparency

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[Lessa]

Are you saving the files as tiffs? I've done this more than I care to admit. I create a transparent file and then forget to check the box in the tiff dialog box that says to keep transparency.