Hello,
When I export from indesign, I typically choose the "Press Quality" job option to send my files to the printer. However, I've run into a situation where a printer I'm intersted is having a problem with my pdf files.
I design with lots of drop shadows, transparency and other effects. When I open the exported pdf in Acrobat, I see the file layer itself open. The background appears first then all the graphics in front of it appear.
This is what's causing issues with the printer. If I would import and open in Photoshop, I could simply choose "flatten image" and resave as whatever file type i wanted. However, I am wondering if there is anything in Indesign already that would help me eliminate that step?
Thanks for your help, I would love to clairfy if I left any details out.
Thanks,
Steve
In Acrobat X, you need to open the Print Production panel under the Tools on the right. It's not showing by default so you need to choose Print Production from the menu at the upper right.
In the Print Production panel, click on Flattener Preview, and you'll see a dialog box like this. Click on the Highlight menu at the top. If there is no transparency, it will show gray as below.
When you open the Highlight menu, if there is transparency, it will look like this:
When you select Transparent Objects, they will show highlighted in red like this:
Ok, I see what you mean now. When I open the file, the layers still appear from the back foward but when I open the flattener preview, it says there are no transparent objects, so that's good. However, I printed out a preview and it deleted my transparent red layer.
Here is what the file should look like:
Here is how it printed out:
No more shadows or transparent red.
If you run the PDF Optimzer and just change the compatibility to Acrobat 4 it will flatten the transparency and remove any layers in the PDF becasue they are not supported at that level.
Acrobat 5 supports transparency, but not layers, and Acrobat 6 or later supports both. I have no idea where your layers are coming from without knowing precisely what you are doing.
I will ask you again, is overprint preview eanbled in Acrobat? Check your Acrobat preferences.
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