I am in the middle of proofing a job that uses multiple transparencies and blending modes... the proofs looked good (or so I thought), I sent them out for approval (PDFs). Nope, the customer has come back saying the color in the proofs look different than the original files the designer sent. Hmmm....I check the files and they look the same as what the designer sent. What the?.... A phone call to the customer reveals that she is viewing the original (designer's) files without the overprint preview on and comparing them to my proofs (which have overprinting embedded in the file). Really?! Turns out, the designer never showed the customer proofs with the overprint preview on and now they are asking me to try to match color to what the files looks like without the overprint preview on! This is beyond annoying.... I adjusted the files as close as I could (literally by taking the blending off and adjusting transparencies and changing the PMS colors used...). They still don't match perfect and shes very picky. Would you guys tell the customer to go back to the designer or try to make magic for hours adjusting colors and transparencies?
Designer showed a customer final files without overprint preview settings on, really?
- Thread starter shorty83
- Start date
Danny Whitehead
Well-known member
So, they've created particular colours using overprints, transparency/blending modes, or both? And it's spot colours that will be printed with spot inks rather than converted to process? Transparency previews fine in Acrobat Reader without changing settings (which is why I've started using multiply instead of overprint lately).
If the client has only seen it without overprint preview, switching off overprint on the relevant objects should theoretically produce what they've seen.
If the client has only seen it without overprint preview, switching off overprint on the relevant objects should theoretically produce what they've seen.
They created a spot color banner that uses a "hard light" blending along with a 70% transparency. This band sits on top of a 4cp image. So no, there is no overprinting to turn off, even if I take the blending off it does not look the same as how it looks without the overprint preview on.
ErickCasta
New member
That is not your responsibility. I would suggest you to stop modifying the document and contact your client/designer.
PricelineNegotiator
Well-known member
Inb4 "My last printer fixed the file for me."
Danny Whitehead
Well-known member
Ah... that's a bit reckless! Looks like Hard Light just doesn't work with spots. Will this spot colour be printed as spot? I've had a quick play around and it looks like converting it to process yields the same appearance as the misleading one you get without Overprint Preview.
Ignore the text in the box, one of them is still spot...
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Alith7
Well-known member
ugh.... for the number of times that I've missed THAT stupid designer mistake!!!
Danny Whitehead
Well-known member
Sometimes, when the designer doesn't really understand what they're doing, it can end up being more trouble trying to explain things to them and the client, than it is to fix it. Prepress diplomacy, don't you just love it?
Danny Whitehead
Well-known member
There's an ISO accreditation logo that appears on thousands of companies' stationery here in the UK. After finally getting the vector files from the accreditation company's media department, I luckily spotted that it was white type overprinted on a Pantone 288 rectangle. I dread to think how many reprints that caused.
I do think the developers of Illustrator should bear some of the blame, though.
PricelineNegotiator
Well-known member
Submit a report to Adobe. It may be the only way for them to know besides Dov raising a point.
Alith7
Well-known member
A good thought, but I don't see them removing the ability to turn on overprinting when using white.
Danny Whitehead
Well-known member
It's been discussed ad nauseam on the Adobe forums over the years... or is that decades? I think a good warning would probably be better than a change in functionality. I'd personally prefer that only spot white swatches could be set to overprint, but I could see that causing issues with legacy files where the overprinting white was done for good reason. I prefer InDesign's use of a 'Paper' swatch that can't be overprinted.
dabob
Well-known member
Interesting, InDesign will not even let you apply overprint to a white object or a white stroke . . . Illy gives you the message - but I don't think I had ever seen it before because, 1. I don't do a lot of work in illy, and 2 I know that nothing good ever happens when you overprint paper/white . . . .
I ended up picking different spots colors to get as close to the designers files without overprint as I could and explained if they wanted it any closer then they needed to work with the designer (USING OVERPRINT PREVIEW). They went to the designer and he came back with different PMS colors to use even though it didn't match. Guess that designer learned a lesson....
PrintIT
Well-known member
Hopefully
There's some "designers" that I work with that make the same errors over and over and over again.
Doesn't matter how many times you tell them how to fix something - some people just refuse to learn.
Not sure what RIP you guys use but after countless years of "leaving customer files untouched" and doing our best to manually figure out ways to catch issues such as these, I recently changed our RIP to knock out all CMYK white. We run several hundred jobs gang run daily and have yet to see a problem with it.
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