Adobe vs Heidelberg . . .????

[dabob]

This is something that has been happening infrequently and we have always found work arounds . . Yesterday I got a .ai file with some transparency used on an Illustrator element and then there were two photos (wine bottles) with a transparent background placed into the file. When I ran the Illustrator file (placed into InDesign for output) we got the image with the white boxes, I then removed the wine bottles from the illy file and place them into the InDesign file - same result. In the end I ripped it in Photoshop to 2540 res (that being the resolution of the Prosetter) and the boxes went away . . .

We are using a Heidelberg Meta Dimensions rip and Signa Station

I am so confused - does anybody have a clue whats going on?????

ask me more questions I'd love to figure this out.

 

[zoran]

Post AI file to check.
It has nothing to do with Adobe vs Heidelberg.

 

[dabob]

Zoran . . . pm me your email and I will send you a zipped file with links fonts etc . . . also it looks fine in the pdf its on the ripped file that goes to the platesetter that it shows up and sometimes on the proofing printer

 

[Tim-Ellis]

Boy oh boy oh boy,

Used to get this all the time on our old HP Indigo 3500. It's all about how your RIP handles transparency. Let's see what Zoran comes back with.

 

[Sherbert]

CMYK or Spot Colours? How's the image setup?

What version of PDF are you using? PDFX? Or just anything? What version does your RIP support? These are the questions i'd be asking myself.

Had this before on an Indigo 5000. It was due to transparency and spot colours combined.

 

[abc]

As mentioned before it sounds like your Rip does not support transparency.
I would recommend you try ripping the GWG Output Test Suite to find out what PDF functions your workflow supports and what it doesn't. Maybe a Rip upgrade will help?
http://www.gwg.org/workflow-tools/test-suites/ghent-output-suite/

 

[dabob]

Well . .. something I didn't mention was that there were two illy documents from the same "artist" and with different but yet the same elements . . page one ripped fine and page two had the transparency and screwed up . . . and yes we had an Indigo for years and they never fixed it in the time that we had it . . . We are running an up to date Meta Dimensions Rip (we bought the software support pkg but not the hardware support) will give the GWG test a try but still puzzling to me. Just checked and there was a spot color . . it was the 109 yellow background . . will change it to process and see what happens - will keep you posted.

 

[Sherbert]

Bob, you got me intrigued with this. Can I PM you my email address and you send me over the files?

 

[Glenn McDowall]

looks like its the opposite of transparency, if you flatten out of InDesign, and the background is spot, you sometimes get 0% cmyk channels set to overprint the spot or vice versa, unfortunately when you convert the spot to cmyk you then can't overprint cmyk with cmyk. If you ask InDesign to to convert the spot the problem should go away.

 

[dabob]

Didn't get the test results from plating . .. probably Monday sometime . . .;

 

[Sherbert]

I think it might be OPM0 vs OPM1. Refrying it in Indesign probably isn't helping?

 

[David Milisock]

This is something that has been happening infrequently and we have always found work arounds . . Yesterday I got a .ai file with some transparency used on an Illustrator element and then there were two photos (wine bottles) with a transparent background placed into the file. When I ran the Illustrator file (placed into InDesign for output) we got the image with the white boxes, I then removed the wine bottles from the illy file and place them into the InDesign file - same result. In the end I ripped it in Photoshop to 2540 res (that being the resolution of the Prosetter) and the boxes went away . . .

We are using a Heidelberg Meta Dimensions rip and Signa Station

I am so confused - does anybody have a clue whats going on?????

ask me more questions I'd love to figure this out.

What you did is how about 99% of files like this are being handled in the wide format business. It's certainly the RIP in my experience true PDF RIPs handle transparency better but I know none that handle it properly 100% of the time.

In some RIPS Illustrator layering can cause color shifts, specifically on wide format work when running panels like for van wraps. I haven't figured it all the way out yet, I do know that the AI files that I've tested have many layers and no transparency. Illustrator shows active objects for all layers, however if I take the AI file into CorelDRAW X8 I'll find at least one layer with nothing in it, dumping that layer and publishing to PDF from Corel eliminates the color shift. Way too much work just best to RIP the file into a RASTER, using Corel PaintShop Pro X9 for that now.

 

[dabob]

Well . . . we got a phone call from Heidelberg this morning . . . seems like the Meta Dimensions Rip software is nearing its end of life as far as upgrades/progress is concerned. We don't have the "Adobe Print Engine" or they hinted that that was the issue . . . . and outlined an upgrade path that will entail brand new software and some hardware all around to the tune of thousands of dollars . . . still trying to figure out why page one printed and page 2 did not . . . . will keep updating the thread as we find out more . . . .

 

[dabob]

Heard from the plate dept . . . seems like changing the changing the spot PMS109 to a process build solved the problem . . . . and got another one in from the same artist . . . even after sending her a "suggestion list" of things to do differently . . . it came in even more screwwed up . . . . oh well . . .just ring up some more prepress time . . . Like David says keep them profits up!!!