Postcard Mailer Dilemma

[marisaf24290895]

I'm building a postcard mailer for a client I got this back from their printer...  "be sure that the color build is taking into account the "translucent" overlays. Color can change if the build isn't correct to account for colors." I'm not sure what that means. Can anyone help me out? thanks-M

[Peru Bob]

This is the nontechnical Lounge Forum.

Please tell us what software you are using so a moderator can move this to the proper forum for help.

[marisaf24290895]

Yes Indesign. Thank you. I'm not sure how to get to the Indesign forum. Any help in that area would also be great!

[Moved from non-technical Lounge Forum to specific Program forum... Mod]

[Here is the list of all Adobe forums... https://forums.adobe.com/welcome]

[marisaf24290895]

Hello Peru Bob,  I can't start a discussion in the indesign forum because my settings say I can only search forums only. How do I get that changed? Thank you!

[rob day]

They might be referring to total ink, which is the combined value of all 4 process inks. There are some case where using transparency can exceed the presses' limit, which is generally 300%. You can check total ink via the Separation Preview panel.

You'll have to get clarification from the printer.

[Peru Bob]

Sign in.

[John T Smith]

One previous message found marisaf24290895 in the InDesign forum... is that what you are using?

[Derek Cross]

Use the InDesign Acrobat PDF Presets, and select PDF/X-4.

[Sandee Cohen]

First, did the printer see your design so far or is this just one of those caveats they send out.

Are you doing anything special with the postcard? Do you have text over an image? What color is the text? What type of image?

Did you apply any overprinting or transparency or drop shadow or other special effects? If you have no idea what I'm talking about you probably didn't.

Finally, and this is probably the most important piece of advice I can give you. Call the Print Shop and ASK!!! I can't tell you how many designers are afraid to ask questions because they think they will look stupid. You won't look stupid. You will look VERT SMART!

Print shops LIKE designers to ask questions. Because then they can hope that the files won't come in screwed up!

And ask the print shop to respond via email so you can read what they say. And if necessary post their response here. I guarantee we have many people who can help you translate from "printer to designer."

[marisaf24290895]

Thank you so much! I had several fields of color that I pulled back the opacity on... This is an example of the translucent overlay I mentioned. I did reach out to them and ask for greater clarity. Thank you for your feedback! If you're got more ideas since you've seen this image, I'll take them!

[rob day]

I don't see why this would be a problem. There would be no total ink issue with these kind of values.

[Sandee Cohen]

Couple of things:

Go to the View menu and choose Overprint Preview. Check to see that everything looks like you expect it to. Colors may shift, but that's probably to be expected according to the color export. Just make sure they don't shift too much.

Go to Window > Output > Separations Preview.

Turn on the setting to view Ink Limit. Check to see there are no orange highlights anywhere.

Follow any directions the print shop has given you for exporting as PDF.