Strange InDesign CS5 issue

[dirkster]

We are running Rampage 10.5. I'm working on a job done in InDesign CS5 on the Mac (a 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon running OS X 10.6.6). Most pages have a purple circular InDesign gradient. When ripped in Rampage, the corners of the gradient go black (see image). I have tried a number of things - export as EPS, export as PDF and run through PDF trap engine, turn off dual rasterization... nothing works. Any ideas what's going on and how to fix it?

The ripped file portion of the screenshot below has some text boxes missing, as I was checking to see if the text box drop shadows were the problem (no dice).

 

[buckeye]

Are you able to save back and open in CS4 and see if that will fix it? We have version 11.3 of Rampage and CS5 and have never seen the likes.

 

[buckeye]

Also, what pdf version did you try? Flattened or layered?

 

[dirkster]

My next step was to try to backsave to CS4. I'm trying that tomorrow first thing (almost quitting time here). As for the PDF version, I was using the PageExportUtility 5 script to export as discrete PDF pages. Not sure what version that saves PDFs as. Also, I tried to export PDFs directly from InDesign as PDF 1.5.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Those small +es worry me…*guess I'm alergic. Is the purple a spot colour? Also curious if you tried PDF X1a and PDFx4 and if both give same results.

 

[dirkster]

Those small +es worry me…*guess I'm alergic. Is the purple a spot colour? Also curious if you tried PDF X1a and PDFx4 and if both give same results.

The document is filled with overset text, but from what I've seen so far, it is just returns, no actual characters. The purple was an RGB build; I converted it to CMYK. Haven't tried other PDF versions yet.

 

[WharfRat]

Have you tried building the purple problem with a CMYK purple rather than converting the RGB purple?
Maybe the 'GRADIENT' was created from a mixture of effects
of which RGB is not valid.

MSD

 

[dirkster]

Well,

I figured it out. I assumed it was a ripping error of some sort, but it turns out the gradient itself was at fault. I should have seen this sooner. The dark end of the gradient was had not only RGB purple, but also had a very dark CMYK purple underneath in the gradient pallet. The 2 diamonds on the right side of the gradient pallet should have been a clue. When I dragged the lighter purple to the right, low and behold:

By deleting the darker color and moving the lighter purple swatch to the right again I get the results I need.

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. I shouldn't be surprised at something like this; this job is a real mess (4-c black type, low-res images etc.)

 

[buckeye]

Dirkster,

Glad you figured it out. I'm still scratching my head on why didn't it show up in InDesign somewhat. I would've thought InDesign's preview would have shown something no matter which Display Performance was used.

 

[dirkster]

Dirkster,

Glad you figured it out. I'm still scratching my head on why didn't it show up in InDesign somewhat. I would've thought InDesign's preview would have shown something no matter which Display Performance was used.

That's what stumped me too; it didn't show up with Overprint Preview on, HQ Display Performance, or any combination I tried. I guess I just needed a reminder of what prepress was like years ago, when a problem with a file meant you had to dissect it to find the issue, and we didn't have previews or layers or any of that fancy stuff.

 

[Raymond Ramirez]

Wow. Thanks Guys