Problem printing drop shadows and gradients 2

[lbeard]

I am applying a drop shadow to a curved object in CS2 and when exported into a PDF I get a white box in the middle of one shadow and a white line going through another. Even more annoying; my gradients look like targets. Someone mentioned that there were special options to be set for gradients and shadows when exporting into a pdf but I have yet to find what they are. Are there general rules to follow when using them?

 

[jmgalvin]

Try the Press pdf export preset and click on the Advanced section. Transparency flattener should show High. See if that helps the banding (targets) of the thing.

The white lines are a mystery. I would make sure I didn't accidentally have something in there - like a white line or something. Try Select All in ID and see if anything shows up. Also, what does the curved object consist of? That could be important - lile combined paths etc.

To test, make a new ID doc, type some text and then draw a rectangle or elipse somwhere else on the page. Apply the drop shadow to the text box and the shape. Export the pdf at Press - making sure that it shows High in transparency flattener - and see what it looks like. If the whaite lines are still there, you have some sort of other problem. If they're gone, you have a problem with the shape you originally used.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[lbeard]

Thanks! I see now that it was at Medium before. That's because I wanted to make it compatible with at least Adobe 5. Apparently medium is the only option.

If I go down to 4, though, I can save it as high resolution. This ad will be run in a magazine so I'll have to look and see which PDF/x will work best for this kind of printing.

Much appreciated.

 

[Eggles]

If you are creating an ad for a magazine, you had better check what they are using for layout. If Quark, make sure you submit the ad as a PDF X/1a, otherwise various transparency issues will jump up and bite you. Quark cannot handle any PDFs above whatever version it is that allows transparency i.e. above V5 of Acrobat. Submitting a PDF X/1a is the safest (from someone who found out the hard way last week).

 

[lbeard]

I think after sending 50 e-mails, the publisher finally got back to me letting me know to use x/1a. Thanks for your help.