white outline around gradient circle when printing

[tracytcb]

Hi,

I have a circle with a radial gradient fill (white to blue). I have it on a blue background. It looks great on screen, but when I try to print it there is a feathery white outline around the circle. How to I remove this - it only appears on the printed version - both on a laser and an inkjet printer. If I print from the pdf I get the same, only worse as the circle appears with a white horizontal line through it too.

I tried going to clipping path, but it's greyed out.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Tracy

 

[tracytcb]

Forgot to mention - I have a text box over part of the circle. I think this is causing the problem, but I don't know how to fix it.

Please help - it's driving me nuts now!

Tracy

 

[AdobeTim]

Is your printer an RGB device? PostScript or non? Chances are what you're seeing is being caused by the printer's driver. Try selecting all the elements involved in the effect and set them to 99.9% transparency. That will force them all through ID's flattener and may clean up the problem on your printer.

 

[tracytcb]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I tried what you suggested, but that didn't work. My printer is a CMYK laser, and I also tried it on a HP Deskjet 970Cxi - same effect. I have temporarily got around the problem by converting the ID file to pdf, opening the pdf in Adobe Photoshop, and printing from there. Comes out fine from Photoshop.

Tracy

 

[AdobeTim]

http://homepage.mac.com/adobetim/

This is a public folder. You can put your file up there, if you'd like, so that I can get a look at it.

 

[tracytcb]

That link just asks me for a password.

Did I also mention that I'm working from a PC?

Tracy

 

[AdobeTim]

Yes, my mistake. You need the Windows version of the iDisk utility software.

http://www.mac.com/1/idiskutility_download.html

My iDisk is adobetim. You should be able to connect to my public folder using this utility. Toss your problem file up there for me in a .zip archive.

 

[tracytcb]

Well, I hope I did it right. The file is called ltc_final_2004.zip. If it's not there, or you have a problem with it let me know and I'll stick it on a server. Don't worry if it says something about missing links - there should only be one link on there to our logo.

Thanks

Tracy

 

[AdobeTim]

Tracy, it hasn't shown up in my public folder yet. You want to try again or use an alternate means?

 

[tracytcb]

Ok, try downloading it from here:

http://zone3.unn.ac.uk/ltc.zip

Tracy

 

[AdobeTim]

Got it...and I don't see the problem yet. Would you be able to post the PDF in question as well? Thanks.

 

[AdobeTim]

What is your flattener setting, BTW? Be sure to set it to hi-res. Do you get the artifacting in the separation preview?

 

[tracytcb]

I've added the pdf to the zip file so you should be able to get it from the same link I posted before.

flattener settings are 300dpi. Haven't used separation preview - don't know about that.

Did you try printing the file? It only happens when the document is printed. It looks perfect on the screen.

 

[AdobeTim]

I'm traveling right now and can't test how the file prints.

What kind of printer are you using? Is it a PS printer or non-PS?

Window > Output Preview > Flattener

The flattener and separations previews are there so that you can see how a file will separate. If you're using a PS output device, what you see in those previews should be what you produce separations.

If you're printing to a non-PS composite device, then you may get different results.

 

[tracytcb]

My printer is an Epson Aculaser c4000. It doesn't seem to be a postscript printer as you can get an optional Adobe PostScript 3 card for it (which we don't have).

I can't find a 'Output Preview' option in my 'Window' menu.

I am using Adobe InDesign 2.0 on a PC.

 

[AdobeTim]

The output preview features were new for ID CS, so no need to keep looking. The flattener and separation preview features enable you to preview how the PostScript is going to separate and how the flattener is going to process the transparency at separation time.

The potential issue with composite, non-PS output devices is that their drivers so some things the data that are different from a PS output device. Screen data is normally used, raster and vector data is treated differently, and that's where the artifacting and color shifting can occur. This file would most likely separate for printing correctly, but you're getting artifacting on this non-PS composite device.

The PS level 3 card might be a really good idea for this printer if you're using it to proof your ID files regularly.