Incorrect/ inconsistent trapping

[Greg G]

Hi everyone,

I have artwork supplied in illustrator. Fairly standard stuff, process colours plus a couple of metallics.
The text is in process black, converted to outlines and the background is white where text appears.

When processing the pdf through Trueflow 4 the letters are inconsistently trapped. The two samples are from stepped up artwork from different areas of the same forme. If the pdf is ripped again, different letters are spread.

The only way I've found to get the artwork to behave is to turn off any trap settings and process the black only, then repeat for the colours using our normal trap settings.

PDFS directly from Illustrator and refried through Indesign produce the same results.

Any ideas why this is happening??

[kansasquaker]

Wow, we replaced our Trueflow a number of years ago, but it looks like a flattening issue to me. What happens if you give Trueflow an eps of the same file from illy or indesign?

[Greg G]

Looks like you're right!! EPS version process OK. Thanks a lot for your help!!

[KimSaks]

I'm fairly confident it is a flattening issue in the PDF creation. If you need to use PDF files (Recommended) make sure they are NOT being printed to post-script and then distilled with Acrobat Distiller but rather being saved or exported in layers with Acrobat 8 or 9 protocols 1.7 or above. If your RIP is truly Adobe PDF compliant, which I think TruFlow 4 is... it should Rip the layered PDF files just fine.

[Johu]

You should also maybe think about upgrading. Trueflow is now in version 7 which has Appe 2 core that might help with PDF issues as well.