couriergraphics
Well-known member
Have a job using quark shadows applied. When printing to PS & distilling the shadow moves! Ug Quark! Anyone run into this & find a fix?
drop shadow moves
- Thread starter couriergraphics
- Start date
What version of Quark are you using? How much of a move are you seeing?
Without more info my guess is that it's related to transparency flattening. The drop shadows are introducing transparency effects and the Quark transparency flattener doesn't do a great job. You're probably seeing stitching, where the resolution of the top item is different than the resolution of the shadow which causes just enough of a misalignment to be visible.
In versions 8.0 and earlier you could try to adjust the flattener settings to see if going to a higher resolution helps. You could also apply a transparent box with a 1% black (or less) fill over your entire page. This will force all artwork to get flattened with the same settings which might help. This can make your text look chunky and make your final file pretty complex, so if possible, it helps to move other items beside the image and drop shadow to the top of the transparent element so they don't get afffected. You might need to experiment a little.
Better yet, in Quark 8.1 or later you could try exporting the transparency live. We keep the transparency live into our RIP, but if your workflow requires flattened transparency then you can use the transparency tools in Acrobat to flatten, which will do a much better job.
You'll need to use the export to PDF feature, with the prefs set to make a postscript file instead of printing postscript to disk.
See this thread for a few more details
http://printplanet.com/forums/quark/20355-quark-8-1-native-transparency-pdf-export
Shawn
Without more info my guess is that it's related to transparency flattening. The drop shadows are introducing transparency effects and the Quark transparency flattener doesn't do a great job. You're probably seeing stitching, where the resolution of the top item is different than the resolution of the shadow which causes just enough of a misalignment to be visible.
In versions 8.0 and earlier you could try to adjust the flattener settings to see if going to a higher resolution helps. You could also apply a transparent box with a 1% black (or less) fill over your entire page. This will force all artwork to get flattened with the same settings which might help. This can make your text look chunky and make your final file pretty complex, so if possible, it helps to move other items beside the image and drop shadow to the top of the transparent element so they don't get afffected. You might need to experiment a little.
Better yet, in Quark 8.1 or later you could try exporting the transparency live. We keep the transparency live into our RIP, but if your workflow requires flattened transparency then you can use the transparency tools in Acrobat to flatten, which will do a much better job.
You'll need to use the export to PDF feature, with the prefs set to make a postscript file instead of printing postscript to disk.
See this thread for a few more details
http://printplanet.com/forums/quark/20355-quark-8-1-native-transparency-pdf-export
Shawn
couriergraphics
Well-known member
Sorry i was a little brief in my post Shawn. Job supplied V7 tried V7 & V8 exporting ps>pdf also PS & distill. Turns out to be drop shadows on Ills bknd. Known bug! Had to create outlines of all text & reapply shadows. Also pull all picture bounding boxes out to bleeds to eliminate transp issues in the bknd from shadowed being applies to all silos as well. Did i mention how much i HATE quark these days? OK i'm done venting for today. Thanks for the reply.
That makes sense, since Quark still can't handle importing live transparency, only exporting it. Glad you got it to work. You might also be able to get better results by adjusting the transparency flattening settings in Illustrator when the EPS is saved. Adjusting the Raster Effects resolution may also help. The trick is to try and get all the flattening and drop shadow resolutions to match up to avoid stitching.
BTW, your trick with the picture bounding boxes did the same thing as putting a transparent box around the entire page, it caused transparency flattening to apply to EVERYTHING. Makes for a huge file, but it works.
I agree with almaink that Quark transparency is a PITA. Feels like the Illustrator 9 days all over again.
Shawn
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