PDF prints elements that don't show on-screen

[lenscreek]

We are having a print issue with our HP Latex 365. We create our files using Adobe InDesign, and our RIP software is SAI Flexi/Production Manager. On screen, in both InDesign and Production Manager, the PDFs look fine. When we print, some of our images have ghosting, like we didn't mask out the entire background. For example, in the attached photo, we have an illustration where we've masked out the background. These images are Photoshop files where the background is masked out and placed into the InDesign file. We then save the InDesign file as a PDF for print.

We have always created our files in this manner. Prior to purchasing the printer, we prepared our files for other companies to print. We've never been told our files have issues printing. However, since buying the Latex 365, we have seen this issue on numerous occasions, and on different types of material (Duratex banner material and IM330, IM3203, and IM3202 vinyls). So, the print profile doesn't seem to make a difference.

We've checked everything we could think of in each program, and nothing shows until we print. As a work around, we tried saving some files as JPGs to print, but the quality is not as good. We have also tried saving the Photoshop file as a PNG and then placing that into the InDesign file, then saving as a PDF. But it still prints the "background." Tech support with SAI had us bring the PDF into Flexi and rasterize the image. Although that took care of the "ghosting" issue, it changed our colors drastically (they looked neon). We also tried saving files as TIFFs; it shows the same issue. We've tried saving different types of PDFs, but we still get the same issue.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Those aren't elements; that is the transparency boundary of an RGB image with a transparent background. You need to flatten transparencies or rasterize the page in your PDF. This happens when trying to convert an RGB transparency to CMYK when there are colored elements below it.

 

[chrisphilipps]

The issue is you have vector and raster data in the file and Flexi is interpreting the color differently for each of them. When SAi had you rasterize the image Flexi only used the Bitmap Rendering Intent setting and that is why there was no ghosting. I have attached two images showing you where to change the rendering intents, one is for the rip and print window, the other is job properties in Production Manager. Set everything to Relative Colorimetric and the ghosting should go away. Only make this change if you need to have colors match between the 4 types of rendering intents.

 

[lenscreek]

The issue is you have vector and raster data in the file and Flexi is interpreting the color differently for each of them. When SAi had you rasterize the image Flexi only used the Bitmap Rendering Intent setting and that is why there was no ghosting. I have attached two images showing you where to change the rendering intents, one is for the rip and print window, the other is job properties in Production Manager. Set everything to Relative Colorimetric and the ghosting should go away. Only make this change if you need to have colors match between the 4 types of rendering intents.

I will try this and let you know how it goes. Another thing we realized was that we printed the same PDF file only a few months apart. The first time we printed it, it printed properly. The second time we printed it, I rasterized it in Flexi, and it changed the colors drastically. (See attached photo). So why did it print fine before? What other settings should I be looking at?

 

[hybriddesign]

Hi,

There are a ton of different things causing this and I’m tine you’ll learn how to tackle them but the most foolproof way to fix this is to rasterize / flatten problem files prior to printing. If you’re flattening in something like Photoshop or illustrator and there are spot colors make sure that you don’t have the option to keep spot colors intact checked. Occasionally you may need to outline fonts before flattening as well. The main drawback is going to be larger file sizes but you won’t have to deal with these sort of surprises. A lot of softwares and preflight software will have an overprint preview option or else the capability to flag potential issues like this as well. That being said it’s probably safer to just flatten things. Make sure to use the same program to flatten everything and if you use compression be consistent and use the same settings each time.

That being said when you start running into white dropping out due to overprint issues all this goes out the window