Overlapping transparent tifs in InDesign

[daredman]

First time using a HiRes photoshop tif with a transparent background.

I want to place a series of transparent tifs in an InDesign doc, and then overlap them. I have built everything in adobe photoshop 8 and InDesign 3.

It seems to work fine and when I print seperations everything looks fine. My real question is does this actually work from a prepress standpoint. I'm new to transparency and I'm a little afraid I will sell my client on doing this and then the printer will run into issues at the end of production.

Any feedback would be very appreciatd.

 

[jmgalvin]

You really have to make sure that the printer can handle the work. Some printers are more up to snuff on software, etc than others. There can also be problems with the RIP they use (these things are not cheap).

I did a little consulting job for an outfit about a year ago where some of the work with transparency was ok while others weren't. Turned out to be the printing abilities at the various magazines.

If you're not in direct contact with the printer, try sending a trial pdf to the client so they can check with the printer. Just make sure that the pdf is compatible with Acrobat 5 or higher, but best that it not be 7 since a lot of people won't have that. Acrobat 4 will not support the transparency properly.

Using OSX 10.3.8 on a G4

 

[daredman]

Yea they are a major printer on the westcoast so I'm sure they are capable of doing this properly if given instruction. Altough a proof is mandatory,

So my follow up question is: Are there any known issues with Photoshop and HiRes transparent tifs being placed on top of one another in InDesign. I gotta say the transparency option really pushes the envelope of what you can do if there are no technical issues to worry about.

Thanks for the pdf tip.

 

[jmgalvin]

ID has handled transparency well for a long time, so you should not have problems. When you create the tiffs, you might want to diable lzw, or any, comression, since some rips don't really like compression.

In ID make sure that Transparency flattener preset (edit menu) is set to high resolution. Also preflight to make sure there are no color mismatches - like rgb in any image.

I'm assuming that you ran off a print and it came out ok.

It seems that most printers, and all publications, now really prefer pdf, so I would again suggest knocking out a pdf and sending it beforehand - to make sure the printer does not see any problems in it. When you make the pdf make sure that you click Advanced in the pdf export window of ID and make sure that transparency blend is set to high resolution. That should be the default if you select the Press setting. If you're making a postscript file for distilling, make sure that you select "send all data" in the images tab.

If the printer has a website, see if they have tech info on their site. Some of the big ones have quite a lot - to avoid problems and cut down on do-overs, etc.

Using OSX 10.3.8 on a G4

 

[jimoblak]

If you grow tired of jmgalvin's lengthy (yet pertinent) description of PDF settings , simply use the PDF/X-1a export profile to flatten your transparency effects properly for any printer.

- - I hope this helps - -
[sub](Complain to someone else if it doesn't)[/sub]