Please Help me!!! Transparacy in Illustrator 10...

[Markus_Aspling@adobeforums.com]

Hello!

I´m working in OS 9.2 with an G4 and have Illustrator 10. And right now i have a little bit of panic...!! Please help me with this!

I´ve got two PANTONE colors that are faded into each other in Illustrator. And over this i would like to put a couple of white, small, drops.

These drops are made in Photoshop. The drops are saved from Photoshop into "Photoshop doc." in layers to avoid the white background. If i put it together in one layer (merge i think its called) the white drops will fade away into the white background. Therefor i´ve saved it as a photoshop doc.

When i mount my white drops in illustrator, over the "fading" everything looks fine on the monitor.

My problem is when i print the file into a hires pdf-file, or on our proof-printer. On the place where i putted my drops (the picturebox) the fading is changing color, only under the picture box. Beside the box, the fading looks fine...

I´ve tried to change image format on the drops from Photoshop, changed the transparacy settings etc. But without success.....

Could anyone please help me with this... if anyone know what i should do.

I´m working on a pre-press company in sweden, and we are supposed to send the files to the printer as soon as possible.... that´s why i´ve got a little bit of panic!

I´ll check this forum, otherwise you can email me at: [email]mackan@linjepunkt.se[/email]

Thank you

[Agnar_Renolen@adobeforums.com]

The problem is that Transparancy is not supported by Postscript nor any printers (I think). Illustrator solves this by 'flattening' the document during printing or export to EPS.

Flatening works like this: suggest that you have two path objects overlapping each other, where the topmost is transparent. Then Illustrator will divide this path into three paths, and calculate the fill color ov the overlaping part to emulate the transparency. However, when you introduce images and gradients, things becomes more difficult for illustrator, if it is set to maintrain the vector format. Instead, illustrator will flatten the art into raster images. You can control this behaviour in the Transparancy settings of Document Setup. Setting it to 100% raster is the safest way to ensure it will print.

Another solution yet is to export the entire document to an image format, say TIFF, and have Illustrator flattening the docuement into one single image. If you plan to add text art and other vector art on top of the images and gradients, then create a single image only of the background effects, and add the vectorized art on top.

Hilsen fra Norge,
Agnar