White Printing 1

[janose]

Hi,

I sent some .ai and .pdf to a proffesional printers.
The problem is fill and clipped areas are printed white (slightly speckled).

When I print from two ordinary printers this does not happen.

Any ideas about how to stop white being printed?

Thanks

 

[apepp]

...the only way white can print on a high end device is if you have a either percentage inks coming through, could be as low as 1% on any one or all cmyk channels...

...the same can happen if you have supplied RGB values, whereby the values are not quite pure white, but white enough not to be visible on your screen...

...you need to ensure any imported images have a true white background and any vector elements are the same pure white (RGB 256, 256, 256 or CMYK 0 0 0 0)...

...you can verify whether whites are pure white in acrobat pro using the output preview option and hovering over areas of the pdf, you then get feedback on what CMYK values are being used...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...forgot to mention, another possibility is if color profiles are being used in the workflow and causing the whites to be shifted, this can happen on bitmap graphics...

Andrew

 

[janose]

The document is set to CMYK and when I click on the fill colour all the CMYK values are at 0.

I understand what your mean, I had a gripe with black and true black that was similar.

What I can't understand is how the clipped area of mask is visible as a printed white area. I thought clipping masks where invisible.

Thanks

 

[apepp]

...yep, clipping masks are invisible (depending on what your clipping of course)...

...without seeing the artwork in question it is difficult to problem solve...

...if you want I can have a quick look to have a better understanding, you can post a download link to this thread via

http://www.sendspace.com

(send to yourself, then copy and paste the emailed link you have over to here)...

...the only other thought is that of the print providers being used, it is possible there has been some inadvertent color conversion going on in the workflow (they might be a digital printers perhaps)...

...but, as i say, without seeing the pdf you sent, it might be too soon to say it really is the print providers conversions...

Andrew

 

[janose]

Hi,

http://www.sendspace.com/file/t1nxyw

I've saved it as the original .ai file so there couldn't be an issue with the conversion

 

[janose]

Just noticed that when I saved them as a PDF in the Output Tab the colour was set to "No conversion" and "Don't include profiles"

Could that be an issue?

 

[janose]

Correction on that:

When saving the PDF colour Tab is:

Colour conversion: Convert to destination (preserve numbers)
Destination: Document CMYK - U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
Profile Inclusion Policy: DOn't Include Profiles

Here's the PDF

http://www.sendspace.com/file/161swy

 

[apepp]

hi janose,

thanks for the file, have had a look,

nothing out of the ordinary on the ai file, only three linked images i don't have so can't see what those images are, all other boxes are white fills which are fine...

...i imagine you are refering to the white filled boxes printing with a slight color, no images associated with most of these boxes at all, only the caption text...

...no conversion, don't include profiles wouldn't be the problem...

...based on what you have sent me the only clipping masks are on those images (three of them bottom right), they have a drop shadow applied as well...

...i believe the problem to be with your print providers as source artwork is fine from what i can see...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...have also looked the pdf file and can now see the images, absolutely nothing wrong with your artwork here...

...so the print providers have done something at their end in the workflow, very rare to see white printing anything at all, but if it does, it would point to a RIP issue...

...i assume this is litho print or perhaps large format poster printing as file is A2 size...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...to add if you really have to go by this print provider again, try changing the white fills to "none", chances are it won't print shaded boxes...

...but in truth, this doesn't solve the problem the print provider is having...

Andrew