High ink Coverage indesign, from black vignettes using gradient feather

Started by DPSprint, February 13, 2020, 01:29:41 PM

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DPSprint

Something that has bugged me for awhile in Indesign, clients using black vignettes on top of colour images and causing high ink coverage, which goes through to the exported pdf, even when using the correct export settings.

Generally I get supplied pdfs files from clients and just fix it with pitstop (rasterise the vignette and image, and then run the TAC reduction on it)... this can get quite painstaking when there are a lot of images with vignettes, but at least it can now be done with pitstop and im grateful for that!

But... on occasions i get supplied the indesign file so i can start there instead and re export the file, but I have yet to figure out if there is a way to get it to work? It always exports the file with high ink. The webby net aint giving me much help. Maybe I need to flatten the images somehow out of indesign? I have tried the 'isolate blending' check box in the gradient feather box and that helps a little but doesnt fix it.

Any ideas?


DigiCorn

If the InDesign ink saturation offending items are in vector, can't you just do a find and replace and assign a more manageable build (if the vignette overlay is in ID and has a swatch assignment)? Maybe I don't fully understand the issue. Typically you can assign an ICC profile that knocks down high builds (say... everything above 280). I've been almost exclusively digital the last 4+ years, so I've gotten away from offset issues.
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Tracy

The drop shadows are the worst, any fixes I attempt lighten the drop shadow
If you find anything report back!

I just fix with pitstop too, and the ones I can get away with I lighten.

DPSprint

Quote from: DigiCorn on February 13, 2020, 03:39:08 PM
If the InDesign ink saturation offending items are in vector, can't you just do a find and replace and assign a more manageable build (if the vignette overlay is in ID and has a swatch assignment)? Maybe I don't fully understand the issue. Typically you can assign an ICC profile that knocks down high builds (say... everything above 280). I've been almost exclusively digital the last 4+ years, so I've gotten away from offset issues.
Actually its a digital issue, our cutoff is 300 on most stocks, some its 280, doesnt really matter so much on the offset press although I tend to try to keep them low as well.
I cant change the colour the client uses in the files... and usually I dont get the indesign files s its not an option anyway, but today for a change I got both so I thought I would try to work it out.
ICC profiles do nothing to the vignette on top of the image, they only effect the image.

The pitstop TAC reduction works perfectly, except when there is a vignette (usually black) on top of an image, and then I have to take a few more steps to get it to work; basically merge the vignette with the image or sometimes the many many images below the vignette, it can get very tricky at times... and thats where the object inspector comes in handy as well!

Tracy

One thing you can try is select the drop shadow and reduce the black in pitstop and see if it is acceptable
I do this with those "crap" jobs.
It's because it's an overprint that it is an issue.
pitstop's rasterize is a new help tho.
It's a conundrum!

I have rebuilt entire pages by separating out the vector and images and make it an image in photoshop
and then put the vector on top
what a pain in the butt! sometimes it's the only option for me.

Tracy

Jinxed myself, just got one that I have to separate to fix ugh!!

DPSprint


AaronH

The built in Acrobat Preflight profile to flatten to transparency (high res) is what fixes it for me, then an ink tac reduction in pitstop will usually fix these issues for me.

Annoying you can't just do it from InDesign when exporting, seems like that would be a good way to do it, since there is flatten settings in InDesign but oh well...
Mac & Windows | XMF | Fiery | Oris

AaronH

Here's a screenshot of the profile to run. I meant to attach it to the previous post.
Mac & Windows | XMF | Fiery | Oris

DPSprint

Quote from: AaronH on February 17, 2020, 02:34:28 PM
The built in Acrobat Preflight profile to flatten to transparency (high res) is what fixes it for me, then an ink tac reduction in pitstop will usually fix these issues for me.

Annoying you can't just do it from InDesign when exporting, seems like that would be a good way to do it, since there is flatten settings in InDesign but oh well...
yeap I have used in the past, though i think that is only at a page level?

The pitstop rasterize is cool cos you can do it at object level with a few different options as well. i.e. just one image+gradient at a time if you want.

and yes it would be good to be able to do it from indesign, maybe one day! LOL

AaronH

That is true it goes through the whole document to do it, though typically I've had more than one offending element to tackle with it when its happened.

Otherwise, rasterize selection is very handy in pitstop.
Mac & Windows | XMF | Fiery | Oris

abc

Hi guys
Just to shed some light on this.
The Devicelink conversion like most color conversions works on an object basis.
So it converts individual objects and ensures the ink coverage and color separation values of each individual object.
The Page based TAC check works (in the background) on an image of the page to find the TAC, so it takes into account transparency and overprint etc.
So if you have two objects that when combined together are over the ink limit, the way to handle it is to combine them to one object normally by rasterizing them to a single image.
This will mainly be objects that overprint or have a transparency blending like 'multiply.
The thing to bear in mind is that when combined, you are going to end up with an image of a single resolution and a single colorspace. Just like when you transparency flatten, there maybe some color conversion and resolution resampling that takes place.
You should also pay attention to the the object stack. The new Object Browser in PitStop will help you to select the objects and also show you if they are directly next to each other in the stack.
Bear in mind as well, when you rasterize these objects you may end up doing an ICC color conversion, so a single K Black may end up a 4 color black. Just something to watch for.
A Devicelink conversion of course does not have that problem.