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LittleNewsMan
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Errors not showing up in InDesign, finding them in print publication

Feb 6, 2013 9:31 AM

Tags: #errors #preflight

I design a weekly newspaper. Today, and other weeks, we've had what seems to be a sporadic issue where once I finish designing my InDesign document (with no errors in preflight), and send it to our plate maker, the plate is printing a page or more with each line of text cut halfway (see photo).

For instance, this issue occurred this week on our front page, but I used the same template and same PDF preset as the week before, and last week, there were no issues, nor the week before, or week before.

 

My first question is, what might cause the text to print like this on the plate, but not show up as an error in the InDesign document?

 

Secondly, we finally worked around the issue this week by exporting the entire document as a .ps file, then converting it to a .pdf. Why would this have made a difference? More importantly, why would the export setting I've used dozens of times before only not work a handfull of times in regard to the text being cut?

 

Text1.jpg

465 Views   8 Replies   Latest reply: Dov Isaacs, Feb 6, 2013 5:38 PM
 
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  • Peter Spier
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    1. Peter Spier,
    Feb 6, 2013 9:50 AM   in reply to LittleNewsMan
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    This looks like a driver issue, or possibly a problem withthe platesetter itself, but you haven't told us if the lines are also cut in the PDF you exported.

     
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  • LittleNewsMan
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    2. LittleNewsMan,
    Feb 6, 2013 12:10 PM   in reply to Peter Spier
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    The lines were not cut in the PDF. The PDF looked fine.

     

    I should also mention, as we just discovered, that our back page has two advertisements with borders missing. This is a common occurance, but again, we don't see this until a plate is made.

     
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  • Michael Witherell
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    3. Michael Witherell,
    Feb 6, 2013 12:39 PM   in reply to LittleNewsMan
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    What precisely are your export to PDF settings?

     
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  • Peter Spier
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    4. Peter Spier,
    Feb 6, 2013 1:32 PM   in reply to LittleNewsMan
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    LittleNewsMan wrote:

     

    The lines were not cut in the PDF. The PDF looked fine.

    I'd say if the PDF looks right, the problem is someplace in between the PDF and the plate (i.e the RIP or the driver).

     
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  • LittleNewsMan
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    5. LittleNewsMan,
    Feb 6, 2013 1:45 PM   in reply to Michael Witherell
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    Screen shot 2013-02-06 at 3.43.04 PM.png

    Screen shot 2013-02-06 at 3.43.11 PM.png

    Screen shot 2013-02-06 at 3.44.06 PM.png

    Screen shot 2013-02-06 at 3.43.17 PM.png

    Screen shot 2013-02-06 at 3.43.23 PM.png

     
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  • Dov Isaacs
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    6. Dov Isaacs,
    Feb 6, 2013 2:23 PM   in reply to LittleNewsMan
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    Looking through this entire thread, my best guess is that there is some component in the workflow after the PDF file is created (and viewed in Acrobat) that is either corrupting the PDF file or improperly RIPing it. In the former case, some print service providers seem to be obsessed with putting all PDF files submitted to them through tortuous validation and fixup regimens that more often than not yield mucked up PDF files with no improvements or tangible added-value. Or perhaps they are using some bogus imposition process. In the latter case, there in fact may be a RIP problem.

     

    Without further detailed information about the post export PDF workflow, it is very difficult to pin the problem down.

     

              - Dov

     
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  • LittleNewsMan
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    7. LittleNewsMan,
    Feb 6, 2013 2:30 PM   in reply to Dov Isaacs
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    We actually have our own print press in-house.

     

    The workflow is such:

    Once I export my PDFs, I place the individual pages in a folder on our server. Our print man then grabs each page, puts each together into a spread and then places each spread in a que to be printed on our Glunz & Jensen iCtP NewsWriter XL...I don't know all the particulars of this process, but I can ask our print man tomorrow if this isn't enough detail.

     
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  • Dov Isaacs
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    8. Dov Isaacs,
    Feb 6, 2013 5:38 PM   in reply to LittleNewsMan
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    The issue may be exactly how your print man “grabs each page” and “puts each together into a spread.” That process is known as imposition and although most PDF prepress systems handle this as in integrated feature, there are some shops that use very unconventional techniques for this (such as placing PDF files for individual pages into a QuarkXPress document representing flats and generating new PDF from that!). Such techniques are known to often yield interesting and random results.

     

              - Dov

     
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