Indesign Help.....Gradient Banding problem

[Bass Hunter]

Any quick tips to fixing Banding issues in gradients made in InDesign?? We are using InDesignCS3 rippin through Rampage 10.4.0. Any help would be appreciated. Thanx!! ??? ???  ???

[jimking]

Where do you see the banding, in the proof or press, monitor? What's banding, a Illy file, photoshop or Indy? What color combo is it?

[Bass Hunter]

I'm seeing slight banding on the monitor which is then more pronounced when we output the EPSON proof. It's a linear gradient that has been built in In-Design. The build of the Gradient is:
0% CMYK on the highlight end
Midrange pointer is at 50% position of the gradient bar and
At the SHADOW end a build of C 30.19%, M 0%, Y 55.67%, K 0% at the 100% position of the Gradient Bar.

[jimking]

Banding is always fun, I bet the cyan is causing it to band. Here's a couple of tips, change from zero in the highlights to 1%-3%. You can also try to change the angle of the cyan to the yellow angle, sounds crazy but the yellow and cyan do not conflict with each other like you'd think it would, it also removes the annoying moire look when yellows are involved. There are other things you can try such as rotating, recreating in other apps, trying another linescreens.

[almaink]

Nature of the beast, you could add a little noise, to reduce the banding. I see it on the Epson's as well, but never had any issues with banding on the actual press run.

[gnubler]

Wow Jim, you rock!

Are you a Certified Prepress Master?

[jimking]

Wow Jim, you rock!

Are you a Certified Prepress Master?

No, just old. 

[jimking]

Nature of the beast, you could add a little noise, to reduce the banding. I see it on the Epson's as well, but never had any issues with banding on the actual press run.

I agree. If it's only a slight band it should be ok on press........maybe

[Bass Hunter]

Thanx for the tips. Occasionally we'll see the Banding carry over to the Plates and Press-Room, typically we have fixed it by adding noise and feathering in photoshop, but since this was built in In-Design I was wondering about a good way to fix through In-Design

[almaink]

Ya it would be nice if Adobe would add noise as a option when you make a gradient, they have it for feather.

[Laurens]

Is the banding popping up on a PostScript 3 RIP?

Ever since Adobe implemented 12-bit screening in PostScript 3 and added a mechanism to swop out blends from older applications, I assumed banding was a thing from the past. I have still seen it pop up in Photoshop images because these are 8-bit and using 12-bit on an 8-bit channel doesn't help of course. For blends in lay-out apps, it surprises me to hear about banding.

[Jon Morgan]

We had a job a couple of months ago that had radial blends built with InDesign CS3.  You could see the banding on screen, proof and on press and only with the black.  Strangely enough, we swopped screen angles on the black and magenta and poof, the problem was gone (in all those places).  The job in question was a little bit unusual in terms of colors used.  Although all the process colors were being used, there were no CMYK images in the job (this was sort of a saving grace on this job).

Weird.