11 Replies Latest reply: Mar 1, 2007 7:04 AM by julesinchaos RSS

    Gradient fill

    julesinchaos Community Member
      When applying a gradient fill out of process colours, then making a pdf out of distiller, you get an extra plate Process Cyan. All colours are process, no hidden colours and printing directly from Freehand only shows CMYK plates. Has anyone else experienced this? Been using Freehand for years but only discovered this yesterday!! HELP
        • 1. Re: Gradient fill
          SIMON BAR SINISTER Community Member
          Is there anything on that extra Cyan plate or is it just a "ghost plate" with nothing on it?

          Print your seps to a laser printer and see what distiller thinks is on that extra plate. Whatever it is, you can bet that is your problem.

          Do you think you have a piece of art placed into your document that someone named a spot color Cyan? That would explain the 5th plate and the fact that it still looks like a 4 color process job.
          • 2. Re: Gradient fill
            Newsgroup_User Community Member

            > When applying a gradient fill out of process colours, then making
            > a pdf out of distiller, you get an extra plate Process Cyan. All colours are
            > process, no hidden colours and printing directly from Freehand only shows CMYK
            > plates. Has anyone else experienced this? Been using Freehand for years but
            > only discovered this yesterday!! HELP

            Sometimes strange (spot) colors appear in pdf file or even in swatches palette. Usually checking "Print spot colors as process" in the print dialog (Advanced) will produce only required C,M,Y & K.

            Jukka
            • 3. Re: Gradient fill
              julesinchaos Community Member
              Thanks both, I did all that, no extra plate prints out of Freehand and it happens even in a fresh document with no imported images or text. Its baffling. We decided to check it on Freehand 10 and it does it there too! You only see it when you preflight the pdf in Acrobat. (Shows more than 4 plates). You can't "save as" an eps out of Acrobat either with this type of fault. I can't believe we've been working so long in Freehand and never come across it happening before or been pulled up by a newspaper as we use Adfast.
              • 4. Re: Gradient fill
                Newsgroup_User Community Member
                julesinchaos wrote:

                > Thanks both, I did all that, no extra plate prints out of
                > Freehand and it happens even in a fresh document with no imported images or
                > text. Its baffling.

                I tested here with FHMX and Acrobat Pro/Distiller 6 (Mac). I can't make it
                happen.

                What are you using as a template document when you open a new file? Maybe
                there's a hidden spot color in the template file.

                Judy Arndt

                • 5. Re: Gradient fill
                  julesinchaos Community Member
                  Hi there, we've tried it in MXa and 10 with Distller 6 and 7 and you get the error in both combinations but not always. I think it depends on how you use that handle thing in the gradient inspector in Freehand. I spent last night trying various combinations always with new documents never with a template and got errors if I didn't quit out of Freehand to reset the gradient tool. All the errors produced spot cyan as a plate in the pre-flight in Acrobat. That's OK if files are going to a printer who knows us well as they know to print spot as CMYK unless we've specified otherwise, but not if going through the Adfast system.
                  • 6. Re: Gradient fill
                    Newsgroup_User Community Member

                    I did a few more tests with different types of gradients and movements of
                    gradient handles and still can't make it happen.

                    All 'New' FreeHand files start with a template file, which is specified in
                    Preferences>Document>New Document Template.

                    If you run Xtras>Colors>Name All Colors, do you get an extra Cyan in the
                    color list?

                    What printer and PPD are you using when you print to Postscript file?

                    If you'd like to send me a sample file that gives you this problem, I can
                    take a look at it.

                    Judy Arndt

                    • 7. Re: Gradient fill
                      julesinchaos Community Member
                      thanks for your reply. There are no unused colours and no evidence of this extra plate until you get to preflight out of Acrobat. It doesn't matter what setting you distil out of, it still makes the extra plate (preflight more than four plates). I can send you a file if you let me know your address? I made one last night that didn't have the error so I have one I can use but I'll send you the offending file tomorrow from work for you to look at, any suggestions would be very helpful? Jules
                      • 8. Re: Gradient fill
                        Newsgroup_User Community Member
                        julesinchaos wrote:

                        > :I can send you a file if you let me know
                        > your address?

                        Click on my name in the left column of the forum interface. That will give
                        you an email address you can use.

                        I'm curious to find the cause of this problem, because I know I have seen it
                        before. I believe my file contained artwork supplied by a client.

                        Judy Arndt

                        • 9. Re: Gradient fill
                          Newsgroup_User Community Member
                          Jules,

                          I got your files.

                          There has to be a bug when with 'Normal' type gradient, when the gradient
                          handles have been moved out of default position. I too am seeing the extra
                          spot Cyan plate, and it doesn't matter which colors make up the gradient.

                          All I can advise as a workaround is that you use an 'Auto Size' gradient,
                          which is the old FH style gradient. When I use that, no extra spot Cyan
                          plate is generated.

                          Judy Arndt



                          julesinchaos wrote:

                          > thanks for your reply. There are no unused colours and no
                          > evidence of this extra plate until you get to preflight out of Acrobat. It
                          > doesn't matter what setting you distil out of, it still makes the extra plate
                          > (preflight more than four plates). I can send you a file if you let me know
                          > your address? I made one last night that didn't have the error so I have one I
                          > can use but I'll send you the offending file tomorrow from work for you to
                          > look
                          > at, any suggestions would be very helpful? Jules
                          >

                          • 10. Re: Gradient fill
                            julesinchaos Community Member
                            Sorry Judy, forgort to post thanks! Jules
                            • 11. Re: Gradient fill
                              julesinchaos Community Member
                              Sorry Judy, forgort to post thanks! Jules