Printing PDF from InDesign - HELP FAST PLEASE!

[davidjam@adobeforums.com]

I am trying to print out placed PDFs for the county election (90 pages total). When I print out directly from Adobe Reader (to a Xerox copier) the ovals come out with a thin, unbroken, clear black line which is suitable for conventional camera room reproduction. However, when I output it from InDesign the ovals come out extremely light -- as if they are a hairline that is barely visible. This is NOT reproducable in the camera room.

I have tried changing EVERY setting in InDesign and the print driver and nothing is working! Why is InDesign messing with the output?

[Peter_Truskier@adobeforums.com]

If you'd like to send me a sample, I'll hace a look at it. (Click my name for the address...)

[davidjam@adobeforums.com]

Unfortunately, the ballots are confidential, at least until election day. When you say "sample" did you mean the PDF or the actual print output?

[Peter_Truskier@adobeforums.com]

I meant the PDF, but if you can't, you can't.

What printer or device are you printing to? Did you use the same one for your tests in printing from both Reader and InDesign?

[Dov Isaacs]

David,

Without seeing the PDF files you are placing and examining the content, it is literally impossible to assist you. What program created the placed PDF files and how? What is the content?

What do you mean by printing to a "Xerox copier?" Xerox printer? What model? PostScript driver, PCL driver, what? We need more information to assist you.

By the way, although I am not an attorney, I doubt that there is any legal justification for maintaining a ballot as "confidential at least until election day." Ballots are public record PRIOR to election day such that they can in fact be verified as correct by those in running and possibly challenged in court (as they often are, at least here in California).

- Dov

[davidjam@adobeforums.com]

Well, it turned out that I had to drop the InDesign output, because they were in too much of a rush. So I've been on the light table all day pasting up a bunch of changes that could have been easily overlayed in InDesign.

For all I know, InDesign was reproducing the ovals more accurately than Reader, but I wanted them dark like the output that came from Reader.

If I get more time (or incentive) later, I will post more details.

Thanks for your feedback anyways.

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

Did you try making a pdf from InDesign and then outputting from Reader?

It sounds as if the printer driver you are using in reader is defaulting to a minimum stroke width for all strokes under that threshold.

[davidjam@adobeforums.com]

I figured out the problem and the solution:

PROBLEM:

When printing PDFs from InDesign sometimes black is output at approximately 90% screen of black. (This was causing the thin line ovals to output poorly)

CAUSE:

The PDF file was created from an originating application where black is set to "Rich Black" (a combination of CMYK). The purpose of this is probably to improve the appearance of black on ink jet printers.

When printing this from InDesign as a composite (composite grey, composite cmyk), InDesign interprets the "Rich Black" as something not exactly 100% black.

SOLUTION:

Use the following print settings:

--> Composite Grey (NOT Composite CMYK)
--> Simulate Overprint

Any additional black elements (text, lines, boxes, etc) that are added to the document should be set as Registration Black. Furthermore, do NOT select Print Text as Black, as this will recreate the problem for text.

[Peter_Truskier@adobeforums.com]

The PDF file was created from an originating application where black is
set to "Rich Black" (a combination of CMYK).




How did you determine this? I think it's actually more likely that the originating application defined the black in RGB space which InDesign then converted to CMYK when you chose composite CMYK output.