Opacity masks (vignettes) often appear stepped

[Joe_leMonnier@adobeforums.com]

CS, 1.5G

When makinf a simple vignette I often get steps rather thanb a smooth fading to white. Strangely, this also happens in Photoshop with layer masks. I've posted the topic on the Photoshop forum and the best solution seems to be to add a little noise (to the mask) and then remask out the unwanted noise in the white areas.
I was hoping someone here could suggest a method to remove (or reduce) the stepping in Illustrator.

Thanks,

Joe

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

Joe,

I have not seen this problem but the first thing that comes to my mind is your monitor settings. Are you seeing the stepping on your monitor only or also when you print?

[Joe_leMonnier@adobeforums.com]

The monitor is a cimema display set to 1600x1200 and I get the banding from printing as well. I repeat that this is a noted problem with Photoshop that occurs only less dramatically in Illustrator. Someone speculated that Illustrator builds-in some amount of noise into the opacity mask.

Also the pieces I am masking are pretty flat and a little wased out at the edges anyway.

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

I wish I could help you Joe. Most of my print work is outsourced and I don't remember having a problem. I'd test it on my Phaser 790 but it's in need of repair right now. Hope you get this resolved.

Linda

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

I wonder if starting out with a higher resolution would help. What resolution were you working with in Photoshop?

[Joe_leMonnier@adobeforums.com]

The files in Photoshop are at 300 dpi. i have tried the settings in the prefs at both high and low res. In Illustrator, i've got the raster effects at 300dpi also. Like I said, the effect is more appearent in Photoshop and at least as far as these forums go, there is no perfect solution for it. In Illustrator, it gets a little better but I can not get rid of a small but noticable banding. I will try to increase the raster settings jsut to see if I can 'trick" it a little.

Thanks,

Joe

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Have you tried changing the Raster effects settings or flattening the transparency and changing the dpi to say 300?

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

Is the banding problem in print or on screen?

[Joe_leMonnier@adobeforums.com]

I've got the raster effects up to 300 dpi but have as yet done nothing about flattening the transparency.

I get the banding in both print and screen

thanks,

Joe

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

Banding on the screen is a different issue than banding in print.

Your monitor profile needs checking.

Banding in print can be determinine mathmatically.
The banding formulas can be found in the manual.

Are you printing to a postscript device?
If so, what postscript level?

document raster effect settings will not affect the screen representation of a gradient.

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

Hi John,

Glad you are on this one. I am interested in following along for future reference. I also wonder what kind of printer Joe is using.

[Joe_leMonnier@adobeforums.com]

My printer is an Epson 2200, yes a non-postscript model. Are there any disadvantages to this? None that I yet know of.

Part of my question was that since the banding is an accepted part of Photoshop, why is it noticably less (but not absent) in Illustrator? You can search the Photoshop forums (mac/ PC) and conclude that they've just learned to live with it.

It gets much closer to perfect with Illustrator and I am hoping that there is some small thing I can do to get it there.

thanks,

Joe

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

You might be able to use a RIP software though a little expensive for what it does called PowerRIP.

It essentially turns your printer into a postscript printer. You can try the Demo and see if it solves the problem, but I would make a copy of the file and try flatten the transparency.

Also in your Epson printer drivers you can make sure you have High Speed deselected in the Print Settings.

[Joe_leMonnier@adobeforums.com]

PowerRip is the latest version of the old Birmy product which at the time was agreat product.

Somewhere along the line they stopped using the Adobe Postscript driver (engine?0 and the product in my opinion went to hell. I work with maps and it is hard enough to proof them for the stupid kind of mistakes I can make without adding the ones this software was capable of.

at one point I was sending them a file 5 or six times a day that printed on their system without the one layer of countries. BTW, it printed perfectly with the old Birmy RIP.

Their support was the best I ever seen or imagined but they never solved the problem for me. In fact, it was them ( a nice motherly woman in Florida) who suggested that I didn't really need the Postscript RIP and could do just as well printing directly from Illustrator to any Epson printer as long as my linked files did not contain EPS previews. All that was 3 years ago . They may have gotten it fixed by now, but I'm too scared to find out.

BTW. I use the Epson (latest) drivers and sometimes Gimpprint (w. ghostscript)

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

that since the banding is an accepted part of Photoshop,




No, banding is NOT an accepted part of Photoshop. I want to make this point clear from the beginning.

Please clarify something for me regarding the banding you see on screen.

Create a 5x5 inch square filled with a gradient that goes from 0% to 10%.

Drag the gradient palette's height out so the gradient bar representation appears about a 1 inch thick.

Does the banding in the gradient bar match the banding in the 5x5 square?

You should not be seeing any banding in the 5x5 square.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Are you using an opacity mask for a simple vignette? Have you tried using the Feather effect?

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

I know perhaps you can post a screen shot or a jpeg.

[Joe_leMonnier@adobeforums.com]

John: The banding is not accepted but it appears that there is banding produced by a simple blurred layer mask and it requires some other extra measure to remove it. No, the banding is not acceptable in an illustration. Its a common topic on the Photoshop site. I have no trouble (at least none that I notice) with gradients themselves, its only when used as masks (vignettes) that I get the banding I speak of, and mostly in Photoshop

Gary: No, I haven't tried the feathered effect in illustrator. I will though. I've used feathering on the Photoshop layer mask with no real improvement

Wade: I'll get a few minutes tomorrow and hurl a jpeg out there somewhere.

Thanks again, all of you,

Joe