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<ul class="navigation"><li class="prev"><a accesskey="p" class="prev" href="WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-6e9da.html" title="Refresh the preview in the Flattener Preview panel"><img src="images/blank.gif" alt="Previous" width="17" height="17" /></a></li><li class="next"><a accesskey="n" class="next" href="WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-6cb0a.html" title="Color"><img src="images/blank.gif" alt="Next" width="17" height="17" /></a></li></ul><div class="hierarchy"><a href="WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-6eb9a.html">Transparency effects</a> /
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                <h1>
                    Best practices when creating transparency
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                <div><p>In most cases, flattening produces excellent
results when you use an appropriate predefined flattener preset,
or create a preset with settings appropriate for your final output.
For a complete reference and troubleshooting guide on how transparency
affects output, see the document “Achieving Reliable Print Output
with Transparency” (English only) on the Adobe website.</p>
<p>However, if your document contains complex, overlapping areas
and you require high‑resolution output, you can achieve more reliable
print output by following a few basic guidelines:</p>
<div class="important"><span class="importanttitle">Important:  </span>If you’re applying transparency to documents
intended for high-resolution output, be sure to discuss your plans
with your service provider. Good communication between you and your
service provider will help you achieve the results you expect.</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Overprinting objects</h4><p>Although flattened
objects may look transparent, they are actually opaque and don’t
allow other objects beneath them to show through. However, if you
don’t apply overprint simulation, the transparency flattener may
be able to preserve basic overprinting of objects when exporting
to PDF or printing. In this case, recipients of the resulting PDF
file should select Overprint Preview in Acrobat&#160;5.0 or
later to accurately view the results of overprinting.</p>
<p>Conversely,
if you apply overprint simulation, the transparency flattener provides a
simulation of what the overprints look like, and this simulation
results in all opaque objects. In PDF output, this simulation converts
spot colors to process color equivalents. Therefore, Simulate Overprint
should not be selected for output that will be color separated later.</p>
</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Spot colors and blending modes</h4><p>Using spot colors with certain
blending modes sometimes produces unexpected results. This is because
InDesign uses process color equivalents on screen, but uses spot
colors in print. In addition, isolated blending in an imported graphic could
create knockouts in the active document.</p>
<p>If you use blending,
check your design periodically using Overprint Preview in the View
menu. Overprint Preview gives an approximation of how spot inks
that overprint or interact with transparent objects will appear.
If the visual effect is not what you want, do any of the following:</p>
<ul><li><p>Use a different blending mode or no blending mode. Avoid
these blending modes when working with spot colors: Difference,
Exclusion, Hue, Saturation, Color, and Luminosity. </p>
</li>
<li><p>Use a process color where possible.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Blend space</h4><p>If you apply transparency to objects
on a spread, all colors on that spread convert to the transparency
blend space you’ve chosen (Edit&#160;&gt; Transparency Blend Space),
either Document RGB or Document CMYK, even if they’re not involved with
transparency. Converting all the colors results in consistency across
any two same-colored objects on a spread, and avoids more dramatic
color behavior at the edges of transparency. Colors are converted
“on the fly” as you draw objects. Colors in placed graphics that
interact with transparency are also converted to the blend space.
This affects how the colors appear on‑screen and in print, but not
how the colors are defined in the document.</p>
<p>Depending on your
workflow, do one of the following:</p>
<ul><li><p>If you create documents
for print only, choose Document CMYK for the blend space.</p>
</li>
<li><p>If you create documents for web only, choose Document RGB.</p>
</li>
<li><p>If you create documents for both print and web, decide which
is more important, and then choose the blend space that matches
the final output. </p>
</li>
<li><p>If you create a high-resolution print piece that&#160;you’ll
also publish as a high-profile PDF document on a website, you may
need to switch the blending space back and forth before final output.
In this case, be sure to reproof the color on every spread that
has transparency, and avoid using the Difference and Exclusion blend
modes—these modes can change the appearance dramatically.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Type</h4><p>When type is close to transparent
objects, it may interact with transparent objects in unexpected
ways. For example, type that wraps around a transparent object may
not actually overlap the object, but the glyphs may be close enough to
interact with the transparency. In this case, the flattener may
convert the glyphs to outlines, resulting in thickened stroke widths
on the glyphs only.</p>
<p>If this happens, do either of the following:</p>
<ul><li><p>Move the text to the top of the stacking order. Use the Selection
tool to select the text frame, and then choose Object&#160;&gt;
Arrange&#160;&gt; Bring to Front.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Expand all text to outlines for a consistent effect throughout
the document. To expand all text to outlines, select Convert All
Text To&#160;Outlines in the Transparency Flattener Preset Options
dialog box. Selecting this option may affect processing speed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Image replacement</h4><p>The flattener requires
high-resolution data to accurately process a document with transparency.
However, in an OPI proxy workflow, placeholder or proxy images are
used, for later replacement with high-resolution versions by an
OPI server. If the flattener doesn’t have access to the high-resolution
data, then no OPI comments are produced and only the low-resolution
proxy images are output, resulting in low-resolution images at final
output.</p>
<p>If you work in an OPI workflow, consider using InDesign
to substitute images before saving the document as PostScript. To
do this, you must specify settings both when you place the EPS graphic
and when you output it. When you place the EPS graphic, select Read
Embedded OPI Image Links in the EPS Import Options dialog box. When
you output, select OPI Image Replacement in the Advanced area of
either the Print or Export EPS dialog box.</p>
</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Color conversions</h4><p>If a transparent object
overlaps a spot color object, undesirable results may occur when
you export to EPS format, and then convert spot colors to process
colors upon printing or create color separations in an application
other than InDesign.</p>
<p>To prevent problems in these cases, use
the Ink Manager to convert spot colors to process color equivalents
as necessary prior to exporting from InDesign. Another way to prevent
problems is to make sure that your spot inks are consistent in both
the original application (for example, Adobe Illustrator) and InDesign.
This may mean that you’ll need to open an Illustrator document, convert
a spot color to process color, export it again to EPS, and then
place the EPS file in your InDesign layout.</p>
</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Adobe PDF files</h4><p>Exporting to Acrobat&#160;4.0 (Adobe&#160;PDF&#160;1.3)
always flattens a document with transparency, which may affect the
appearance of its transparent objects. Nontransparent content is
not flattened unless Simulate Overprint is selected in the Output
area of the Export Adobe PDF dialog box. Therefore, when you export
an InDesign document with transparency to Adobe PDF, do any of the
following:</p>
<ul><li><p>Whenever possible, choose Acrobat&#160;5.0
(Adobe&#160;PDF&#160;1.4), Acrobat&#160;6.0 (Adobe&#160;PDF&#160;1.5),
or Acrobat&#160;7.0 (Adobe&#160;PDF&#160;1.6) compatibility
in the Export Adobe PDF dialog box to preserve transparency in a
live and fully editable form. Make sure that your service provider
can handle Acrobat&#160;5.0, Acrobat&#160;6.0, or Acrobat&#160;7.0
files.</p>
</li>
<li><p>If you must use Acrobat&#160;4.0 compatibility, your
document contains spot colors, and you want to create a PDF file
for on-screen viewing (such as a client review), you may want to
select the Simulate Overprint option in the Output area of the Export
Adobe PDF dialog box. This option properly simulates the spot and
transparent areas; recipients of the PDF file won’t have to select Overprint
Preview in Acrobat to see how the document will look when printed. However,
the Simulate Overprint option converts all spot colors to process color
equivalents in the resulting PDF file, so be sure to deselect this
option when you create the PDF for final production.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Consider using the predefined [Press Quality] Adobe PDF preset.
This preset contains flattener settings appropriate for complex
documents intended for high-resolution output.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section"><h4 class="sectiontitle">Trapping</h4><p>Flattening may convert vectors
to rasterized areas. Traps applied to artwork in Adobe Illustrator
using strokes and placed in InDesign will be preserved. Traps applied
to vector artwork drawn in InDesign and then rasterized may not
be preserved.</p>
<p>To keep as many objects vector as possible,
select the [High Resolution] transparency flattener preset in the
Advanced area of the Print or Export Adobe PDF dialog box.</p>
</div>
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