23

 

Transparency - still a problem when it comes to print

Since I've jumped into the print sphere back in 2006, there still is one problem that bothers my life quite much: tranparency.

Whether using tranparent psd files over at Illustrator or just tunning the artwork with a native Illustrator effects, the output files usually end up somehow messed up. Because I'm surely not alone struggling with this issue, decided to give it a post with demonstration of the actual problem.

It is not a secret that I completely felt in love with Illustrator since moved to print. Nowadays it keeps me that strong, I do use it even for photocollages. The reason is quite simple; I see Illustrator more comfortable to work with compated to Photoshop. The place around the artboard to store graphic, most of projects within one layer, etc. simply grabbed my heart.

The problem raises when working with transparency though. Whether I place a transparent psd file into Illustrator, or use any of the native transparency effects, the output pdf seems to have a problem with that. I always print the artwork as a postscript file, going through distiller to the pressquality file. The problem is nicely visible on a recent portfolio work of Puma PR here (the effect is highered on the jpg below).

This mess is usually visible just with Adobe Acrobat; after rasterizing the artwork over at Photoshop, the file seems ok. However feels like never can't be sure about it since once a printer called me with a problem of white horizontal stripes after the first ofset printout.

It is evidently caused because of the transparent psd photo frames, composed (and drop-shadowed) at Illustrator. After the first checkout decided to rasterize the whole thing except texts and those red elements as a single eps background. Conflict resolved. There always is a solution, but questioning, is this step really necessary?

Petr Lysák, 23 March 2009,   share on