3 Replies Latest reply: Feb 12, 2014 1:22 PM by Trevor Dennis RSS

    Strange PDF Problem

    Trevor Dennis Community Member
    Trevor Dennis Feb 11, 2014 8:00 PM

      I had a close call today with a PSD file saved out to PDF and sent to the printer (via the client). 

       

      See how the colour has not extended to the far right and left of Marlborough?

      Marl PDF.JPG

      Luckily the printer spotted it.  When I opened the PSD in Photoshop again, and double clicked the type layer, I could see what was going on, and fixed it by simply adding a couple of spaces at each end. 

      PDF Problem.JPG

      I've never seen this happen before, and nor had the printer when I spoke after sending back the revised PDF.  I tend to take a pragmatic 'black box' view of stuff like this, and let the likes of Chris and the rest of the PS Dev.Team worry about why stuff happens, but maybe this will log in your mind for when working with heavily slanted italic fonts. 

       

      Absolutely no problem with the PSD file, nor with the JPG I fired across for initial approval.  Just the high quality print PDF.  For the sake of completeness, I tried it again with Layers and 'edit in Photoshop' checked, and the same thing happened.

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        • 1. Re: Strange PDF Problem
          Silkrooster Community Member
          Silkrooster Feb 11, 2014 8:53 PM (in response to Trevor Dennis)

          Interesting, out of curiousity, how was the the text colored? Normal fill, a layer style, or an overlay. This reminds me of what an overlay could do if it is not the same size as the text. There isn't much need to do overlays any more, but I added it as an option anyway.

          • 2. Re: Strange PDF Problem
            Trevor Dennis Community Member
            Trevor Dennis Feb 11, 2014 9:29 PM (in response to Silkrooster)

            There is a drop shadow layer style, but the text colour is directly from the swatch on the options bar sampled from the hills in the background.  No layer masks involved.  Just a plain vanila tyle layer with Bickhan Script MM.  No Faux character styles.

             

            I emailed Nigel French a few years back, to say thanks for the excellent Lynda.com Photoshop for Designers - Type Esentials he produced, so I might run it by him, just for interest sake.

            • 3. Re: Strange PDF Problem
              Trevor Dennis Community Member
              Trevor Dennis Feb 12, 2014 1:22 PM (in response to Trevor Dennis)

              This is Nigel's reply.  I'd love to be able to say that the X1a 2001 preset fixed the problem, and it may well have rendered better colours from a printing point of view, but the colour still didn't extend to the ends.  Oh well,  We learn a little more day by day, and so long as we have workarounds, I guess we are happy.

               

              Hi Trevor,

               

              Getting a good PDF can sometimes be a dark art. Problems like these usually have something to do with blending modes and color modes. If the document is intended for print, I'd suggest using the Press Quality (or X1a 2001) preset rather than the somewhat erroneously named High Quality Print. These convert colours to your destination CMYK profile, whereas High Quality print makes no change to the colours.

               

              Cheers,

               

              Nigel