Non-printing layers printing

[Dative]

I'm having trouble with layers set to non-printing when printing or making a PDF. Whatever I do (short of deleting them) they still seem to appear, I've tried changing the settings in the print dialog box/PDF dialog box from visible to visible and printable, nothing seems to work. Is this a glitch?

[Steve Werner]

How are you setting Non-printing? In the Attributes panel? In the Layers panel? Show us a screen capture.

Also tell us what version of InDesign you're using, and your operating system, thanks.

[Dative]

Sorry, I should've been more specific. I'm setting it using the layers panel, I'm using InDesign CC 2015 and I'm on Mac OS Sierra. I should also state that the stuff on the non-printing layer is exclusively coloured text boxes and while it prints the coloured box, it doesn't print the text. I'll get a screenshot if you still need it.

[Steve Werner]

Yes, screen captures would be helpful (InDesign and PDF) because I haven't heard of this causing a problem.

[Willi Adelberger]

With which application do you open the exported PDF? Only Adobe Acrobat can show all PDFs properly, some other applications show hidden layers.

Do you distinguish between hidden and not printing? Hidden will export any layer in some PDF settings but switch it off only.

[Sandee Cohen]

How are you setting the items to be non-printing? Are you setting the Layer to Not to Print or the object using the Attributes panel?

This can make a difference

[Sandee Cohen]

One more thing. Do you have "Make Acrobat Layers" checked? If so, turn it off and see if that helps.

[Dative]

I changed no settings whatsoever and it stopped doing it, my InDesign is very temperamental it seems.

I still have the broken PDF though so here are screenshots, I think it's almost certainly a glitch though

InDesign File

PDF

[Test Screen Name]

Since this is about the PDF app please confirm the app used to open the PDF, including version. Don't ASSUME it is Acrobat, read the app name.

[Dative]

Ah yes sorry, it is indeed 'Adobe Acrobat'.

[Test Screen Name]

Does the Acrobat layers palette show the original layers you created, and does making them invisible inside Acrobat show the result you expect?

[Dative]

Also I'm not sure it is necessarily about Acrobat, I've tried opening the file in other programmes, Illustrator, Photoshop etc, and the type isn't there.

[Test Screen Name]

Don't open in those other programs! No guarantee they know anything about layers. Please tell us what you see in the layers palette in Acrobat. If you don't know how to show it, just let us know.

[Dative]

The layers palette doesn't show the original layers I created because I didn't ask it to create individual layers? I don't see how this would help the situation though? Annoyingly I can't try it again because the error isn't happening now.

[Test Screen Name]

Ah... So you want this to be a design-time thing rather than a thing that remains in the PDF... I'll leave that to others who know InDesign better then. But I notice a reference to printing to PDF. The consensus is, for InDesign ... NEVER do that.

[Dative]

Never create a PDF to print?

[Test Screen Name]

No that's not what I said. PDF is recommended for printing.  Never create a PDF file from InDesign by printing to the Adobe PDF printer.

[Dative]

Oh sorry, I realised my original post is slightly confusing. It should say 'I'm having trouble with layers set to non-printing when printing from InDesign or making a PDF'

[Test Screen Name]

Got it, thanks.

[Zaid Al Hilali]

If you're exporting to PDF from InDesign, make sure you don't select "Export Layers: All" under the options section as this will show non printing layers in your PDF.

[Dative]

It had been set to visible & printable, thanks for the suggestion though.