poor gradient fills

[JerryPF]

To check gradient fills I import the FreeHand EPS into InDesign v3 (Mac OS
10.3.4). This displays lines, gaps, windows - whatever you want to call them,
and underlying objects show through. The same happens if viewed in Illustrator
10. They even print this way when output via hi-res rip. Support suggested I
export as an older version of FH, import into Illustrator and export as EPS and
open in Distiller. What a crazy workaround!!! Illustrator can create perfect
gradients first time. FreeHand used to create reliable tints, so what's the
problem now. I've used FreeHand since version 3, but now I having to learn
Illustrator fast to compensate for FH's unreliability.

Page 181 (Strokes and fills) of the FreeHand user guide (PDF), is a typical
example of how the tints break up.

There aren't any trap or choke settings in the preferences top to remedy the
problem. The PDFs created from FH look OK, but no everyone wants PDFs (shame I
know).

Any help would be gratefully received.

Jerry

[Alan Musselman]

Hi Jerry,
I apologize for the wacky work-around that was suggested for your issue. Can
you send me a test file to investigate for you?

Thanks,
Alan Musselman
Macromedia Technical Support

"JerryPF" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:cb75pu$d61$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> To check gradient fills I import the FreeHand EPS into InDesign v3 (Mac OS
> 10.3.4). This displays lines, gaps, windows - whatever you want to call

them,

> and underlying objects show through. The same happens if viewed in

Illustrator

> 10. They even print this way when output via hi-res rip. Support suggested

I

> export as an older version of FH, import into Illustrator and export as

EPS and

> open in Distiller. What a crazy workaround!!! Illustrator can create

perfect

> gradients first time. FreeHand used to create reliable tints, so what's

the

> problem now. I've used FreeHand since version 3, but now I having to learn
> Illustrator fast to compensate for FH's unreliability.
>
> Page 181 (Strokes and fills) of the FreeHand user guide (PDF), is a

typical

> example of how the tints break up.
>
> There aren't any trap or choke settings in the preferences top to remedy

the

> problem. The PDFs created from FH look OK, but no everyone wants PDFs

(shame I

> know).
>
> Any help would be gratefully received.
>
> Jerry
>

[Judy Arndt]

Unfortunately, FH gradients and AI gradients are proprietary features, not
Postscript objects. When you export as EPS, FH gradients are broken into
small segments of non-gradient fills.

I've seen the underlying objects showing through in AI and Acrobat Pro, but
the problem goes away when I turn off anti-aliased preview in the Adobe
applications. It seems that Adobe preview anti-aliases all the edges of
gradient segments to transparent.

If you're printing to a non-Postscript printer, then the Adobe on-screen
anti-aliasing is likely being sent along to the printer. Try turning off
anti-aliasing in the Adobe app when you print to a non-Postscript printer
and see if that helps.

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.3


JerryPF wrote:

> To check gradient fills I import the FreeHand EPS into InDesign v3 (Mac OS
> 10.3.4). This displays lines, gaps, windows - whatever you want to call them,
> and underlying objects show through. The same happens if viewed in Illustrator
> 10. They even print this way when output via hi-res rip. Support suggested I
> export as an older version of FH, import into Illustrator and export as EPS
> and open in Distiller. What a crazy workaround!!! Illustrator can create
> perfect gradients first time. FreeHand used to create reliable tints, so
> what's the problem now. I've used FreeHand since version 3, but now I having
> to learn Illustrator fast to compensate for FH's unreliability.

[JerryPF]

Dear Alan

Thanks for your interest, attached is FH EPS file containing radial fills and
also a PDF exported from InDesign, showing a visible underlying object.

Judy Arndt, who also responded to the problem, believes it could be due to
anti-aliasing in Adobe products, but this occurs when output to Press from
Quark.

Hope you manage to discover a remedy.

Regards,

[Didi DK]

Hi there

I've got the same problem on Win2000/Quark 4.1. It helped somewhat to set the
UserPrep file to SLIDES.PRP (File - Print - Advanced).
Allso setting the Print settings to QUALITY PS LEVEL 2, exporting the file as
Photoshop 3 EPS (*.ai), open the file in Illustrator and save as EPS and THEN
put it into Quark, made my PDF look ok.

Hi Alan - why dont you answer my mail!!?!?!?!?

;-) Dieter