Flattening Problems

[Nick_Miller@adobeforums.com]

Can anybody help?

I am working on a book in InDesign CS. In this book I have many screen shots and artwork. On some of the screen shots, I have call outs describing parts of the picture and drop shadows around the pictures (I am adding these call outs and drop shadows in InDesign to save time.)

For some of these pictures with call outs, I will use InDesigns Ellipse tool by making a circle to highlight something on the picture. Connected to the circle, will be a line to the outside of the screen shot and then next to the line describing what was circled.

When I print these objects on the page they look fine. But when I make a postscript file (PDF) the circle that was made with the Ellipse tool and the line made with the Line tool where they touch or are connected, in the PDF they looks muddy or globby looking. I think this is the result of Flattening when making the postscript file.

But however when I just export the document as a PDF it looks fine. I still want to print to file making Postscript file. (I want to try not using the Export to PDF file) I was wondering is there anyway to turn OFF Flattening when going to print to file making Postscript file. I tried changing the Transparency Flattener Presets to high and tried creating my own but it still looked muddy or globby looking.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick M

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Postscript does not support transparency. The only way to keep the
transparency live is to export to PDF 1.4 or later.

Bob

[Scott_McCullough@adobeforums.com]

The "High Resolution" flattener preset is a joke. 1200 ppi doesn't cut it for high-rest output.

Try creating a custom flattener style with these settings:

Raster/Vector Balance: 100
Line Art and Text Resolution: 2540 ppi
Gradient and Mest Resolution: 600 ppi
Convert All Text to Outlines: On
Convert All Strokes to Outlines: On
Clip Complex Regions: (should be grayed out in IDCS with R/V Balance @ 100)

You can play around with your settings to find what works best for you. I've just found that the default settings are useless for achieving quality output.

[Scott_McCullough@adobeforums.com]

Another thought:

I highly encourage you to put transparent elements on their own layers to minimize their interaction with other elements. Strategic layering will often allow you to output successfully files containing complex transparencies.

[Nick_Miller@adobeforums.com]

I tried your suggestions but they didn't work. They still look the same.

Thanks,
Nick M