InDesign help! step & repeat export problem

[wentworth]

Hi guys,

Ive placed a file created in Illustrator CS3 into Indesign CS3. Part of the design is a seamless pattern. Using Step & Repeat i place it 6up on an SRA3 size document. At this stage all looks good the pattern in each occurence of the image is consistent/identical. Its not until i export it to PDF that the resulting PDF file shows that the pattern in each image has shifted.
Its hard to explain exactly but what i mean is, each individual piece still looks fine, but compared to each other they reference different areas of the pattern rather than being identical. Ive redone this a few times thinking it was actually the step and repeat command that had messed it up without me noticing before exporting, but its actually all fine in InDesign and only the exported PDF which reflects this problem. Does anyone know of this problem and is there a known work around or what am i doing wrong? Help appreciated!

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Why not use illustrator to make the pattern? It sounds from your description as a rounding off (decimal precision) problem, how to tackle it is hard, especially since you are not showing any screen dumps. Is there transparency involved or just a "plain" vector pattern?

 

[wentworth]

Hi Lukas thanks for the reply.
I did use illustrator to create the pattern. Im just using Indesign to impose it 6up (using step and repeat) on an sra3 size sheet, which works fine, and then export to pdf. But the export process creates a pdf where each pattern is slightly different to other, where as in Indesign they show as all identical. Ive attached a sample replicating the problem, ie, the InDesign file where there pattern is identical in each, and the PDF file where the pattern shifts. In this case it shifted only in the bottom left.

 

[wentworth]

oh just realised without the singular file that was placed into InDesign originally you wont see anything. Ive attached it. Its a PDF. What i do is create in Illustrator with bleed. Place AI file in Indesign and export to PDF with crop marks for the print shop or for myself if i am going to impose it myself. In this case i am. So i then place the singular PDF with crop marks into InDesign, step & repeat to 6up, and export to PDF again.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Oki–*that is freaky… not supposed to be like that, must be that somehow the file looses the reference point for the pattern. The object is still intact with the same pattern fill, if opening the PDF in illustrator, just the patterns refference point, the y value of the lower right object to be precise that is somehow lost :S

From illustrator, what have you saved? Are you using any PDFx standard? Does it make any difference if you export to a PDFx1a from indesign? Have you tried/compared with printing to PS and distilling?
It is very alarming, but since it is 2 versions old i doubt if we will see much effort invested in trouble seeking, what we can do at best is:
a) make sure it is solved in later versions
b) find a workaround recepie that is fool proof (i would suggest trying a PDFx1a and see if that works)

One more question, is illy version newer than indy version?

 

[wentworth]

Illustrator also from CS3. File is saved as AI. Im not PDF-ing from Illustrator, only placing in InDesign and all PDF exporting is done from there.

Im not too familiar with ps and distilling. Im not sure what PDF setting im using at the moment. I did the research on what setting to use a while ago and now have it saved as a preset. Not at that PC at the moment but will check and also try PDFx1a and see if anything changes. Thanks!

 

[Stephen Marsh]

I would be curious to see how PDF imposing software handles this, rather than imposing in InDesign (Kodak Preps, Dynagram Inp02, Quite Imposing etc).


Regards,

Stephen Marsh

 

[wentworth]

ok so tried pdf/x1a and no luck. My setting was actually on none.
Its happening intermittently though. On 'none' ive had luck on 1 document where it came out fine. Have tried 3 times since and pattern has moved reference point randomly again. Its usually on only 1 or 2 of the items.
I cant try any of those other imposing softwares, this is all i have!

 

[oxburger]

I exported the file with no problems. (I used the one up .pdf from your post as the single page pdf for imposition). Attached are the imposed pdf and the InDesign presets I used to export.

 

[wentworth]

ok so i half i sussed out printing postscript file and distilling it. Its definatley done the trick.
I just need to make sure ive got all the settings right as half my sheet is being chopped off. Odd about Indesign though. Thanks for all the ideas!

 

[wentworth]

hey thanks oxburger will check out your preset. Will save me mucking around with distiller! Dont really wanna try anything new on this job when i dont really know what im doing

 

[wentworth]

nope something definatley wrong on my end. I loaded your preset and still same problem. Are you using CS3 also?

 

[Shawn]

Hi Wentworth

What happens if you go to the original Illustrator file and Expand the pattern (from the object menu)? This should change it from an Illustrator repeating pattern object to just a bunch of drawn vectors. My guess is the pattern fill is what's confusing InDesign when you try to make your PDF. It might be trying to optimize things and messing up by applying the starting point to the entire page instead of to each element.

I've seen this type of thing before with Packaging work that was done in Illustrator. As the nested box artwork was copied and moved down the page the background pattern repeated in different ways on each box since the x and y coordinates were going by the overall page instead of on each element.

Shawn

 

[oxburger]

CS5 Wentworth. Hope you get it worked out.

 

[oxburger]

Just out of curiousity, are you exporting across a network? or to your desktop?

 

[wentworth]

oxburger the first time i was exporting across a network, but the last few times no. But since i havent been exporting across the network i probably have only saved to the desktop rather than where i usually save my designs. Is that a factor? Ill give it a try not saving to desktop also.
shawn i think your right expanding the pattern would probably fix it but i just didnt want to do that. But i guess i can do that before exporting without saving. I could just see myself messing up and saving it and closing it by mistake.

 

[prepressRob]

I recently had a similar situation. A shopping bag compiled in InDD CS5, consisting of a dieline (AI CS5 eps) live text from InDD, and a background gingham pattern built in AI CS5. All looked fine in the indd file, but in the exported PDF, the background pattern moved up .375". I thought reference point as well. I even tried to counter-shift it. The counter shifted file produced a PDF with the pattern right where I put it - .375" off in the other direction! I saved the AI file (background pattern) as eps and re-linked to it, problem solved. I don't know why it worked - but it did and we were able to proceed.

 

[WiseGuy]

I would be curious to see how PDF imposing software handles this, rather than imposing in InDesign (Kodak Preps, Dynagram Inp02, Quite Imposing etc).
Regards,
Stephen Marsh

I got the sample file and will try it in inpO2.

Michael Reiher
Dynagram

 

[WiseGuy]

Here's what it did in inpO2. Seemed to work fine.

Michael

 

[wentworth]

so its definatley an InDesign problem then and not limited to just CS3.
prepressRob thanks ill try saving out the whole design as eps and placing into illustrator see if that works.