Expert: Amy - 7/17/2006

Question
Me: Dell PC / Illy CS.
I made some stuff with effects, etc and when I print it out from either .ai/.eps/.pdf I always get white boxes appearing on my print where there were the effects I included, and or placed images. Even when I flattened artwork, they still seemed to appear.
Unless there is a setting on the flattening dialog I didnt get right. Just wondered what I could do to avoid this issue, and Im not sure if this would be an issue at a pre-press house since they use different rip wares.

And a small little different question, why do CMYK images looking great in Photoshop when brought into Illy look so posterized and wrong? Same profiles, but looks as if I overdid something in photoshop, but in Photoshop it looked great. And I know my Dell flat panel may not be of any truthful help, but I was just wondering your input. Thanks.

Answer
MORE INFO, DAVE

http://partners.adobe.com/public/asn/en/print_resource_center/Transparency-Desig...

That's a good read on transparency & printing issues.

-Amy

Hi Dave,

As far as managing color profiles between the two apps, there is a chapter in your help file in CS called "Producing Consistent Color" that you could read to improve what you are seeing. I'd love to give you an easy answer but in this case, that chapter is a must-read.

As far as your first question...

To eliminate those boxes when flattening for your draft prints, I believe you just need to select the object that has the effect AND its background and that box will no longer appear.

With your final job, you might ask the staff at the prepress facility what they recommend but I believe that...

EPS flattens automatically during Save because it is a "flat" format.

AI does not need to be flattened if it's being placed in a layout app - like InDesign. But I believe the success of the print job depends on the level of RIPware that your printer uses.

And I believe that PDF format has some brand new print-end technology that makes it possible not to flatten now, too. But it is very new and probably not everywhere (or anywhere) yet. Here's an article on that: http://www.acrobatusers.com/articles/2006/04/pdf_print_engine/pdf_print_engine.p...

I always flatten or avoid using techniques that require it, so it's a non-issue for me most of the time. My printer is not up-to-date on the latest technologies, so I steer clear. Perhaps one of the other Illustrator experts will know more on this subject!

Well, I hope this helps. Please excuse the short length of this message - I have just returned from a family vacation and my brain is still turned off.

-Amy Pace