adobe indesign clipping paths & pdfs

SooTyLaD

SooTyLaD

SooTyLaD

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
3,480
hi guys...

i've got a product shot in indesign which is linked to a photoshop psd. the psd file has a path attached to it which i have told indesign to use as a clipping path, and this works fine in indesign and the background is clipped out.

however, when i export to pdf, the background is showing up again... does anyone know what i might be doing wrong?

many thanks.
 
ctrl click on the item then go to 'display performance' and make sure it's set to high. The PDF should now clip the item.
 
hmmm... that worked! how in a million years would i have worked that out???

you obviously know what you're on about roysters... could i pick your brains about something else to do with indesign?

basically its all to do with sending the documents to the printers... firstly, what is the best setting to put the print-ready pdf on? currently i just select "print quality" but there are also the choices of "PDF/X-4:2007" and the like... are these better to go for?

and secondly, some of my indesign projects grab things from all over the place, psds, illustrator files, eps, tifs etc, and sometimes not everything that gets dropped in is in CMYK and this causes problems for the printers... is there a way from indesign maybe to just "convert all to CMYK" or something like that? it doesn't seem sensible that although everything needs to be in CMYK it doesnt alert you ever that something is in RGB?

what is the standard way of doing this?
 
Quicksilver,

Print quality is ok to use but I would download the pass4press job options from here:

http://www.pass4press.com/cgi-bin/wms.pl/900

import it into indesign and use those options. I've just found this most compliant with all different printers.

In regards to your second question. I'm afraid you have to do that the old fashioned way... manually. I have made so many errors with stuff going out to print and it coming up in RGB.

Best thing to do is flightcheck everything before you send it out to print. This will give you all the info you need.

It's worth taking precautions because ultimately nobody will hesitate to blame you.
 
i cant use the pass4press as i am using CS3 and they only offer the package for CS2 unfortunately :(

i just did a preflight check on a document which i know contains some stuff copy-pasted from illustrator which was in RGB format, but the preflight says there are no objects in the RGB colour space... does it only check placed bitmap images? or maybe if you copy and paste in vectors from illustrator it converts to CMYK or something?
 
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Quicksilver,

I'm using CS3 as well, it loads fine for me.

(without any document being opened) file > adobe PDF presets > define > load
 
QuiKsiLVeR said:
i cant use the pass4press as i am using CS3 and they only offer the package for CS2 unfortunately :(

i just did a preflight check on a document which i know contains some stuff copy-pasted from illustrator which was in RGB format, but the preflight says there are no objects in the RGB colour space... does it only check placed bitmap images? or maybe if you copy and paste in vectors from illustrator it converts to CMYK or something?
Click to expand...

I would check the illustrator file and convert it. Are they vectors or images?

Oh, and I wouldn't use the inbuilt preflight.
 
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ok then last few questions:

1) when i load that options file as you said above, it shows up in the list but there are warnings as the profile files that are specified cannot be found (and i'm assuming these are the other two files found in the download) - where do i put these?

2) if i shouldn't use the inbuilt preflight, i'm assuming that there is a pass4print preflight check... how do i access this?

3) lastly, i am going to use this due to you saying that it is more "compatible" with printers... but could you explain that a bit? what am i gaining from using these pass4print files? (can you tell i'm a design -> print noobie :D)
 
Really sorry for the delay, been so busy.

How are you adding the pass4press profile?

Without any documents open go to file>Adobe PDF presets>define.

You should get this
2.png


Then click o 'load' and browse the directory where you saved these files.
1.png


Select 'job options'. You should now be left with this, with hopefully, no errors.
3.png


In regards to your 3rd question, I just copied and pasted this from somewhere else, it kinda summaries what I want to say

It is a set of best practice guidelines on how to create reliable print-ready PDF files. A PDF file which complies with pass4press specifications should require no additional handling instructions. Pass4press aims to increase predictability and reliability within the digital workflow.
Click to expand...

it's just a standard used by allot of printers So yes you can use the other PDF settings but these are specifically optimized for what they want.
 
Hi mate, thanks for the reply,

yeah i did all that, but when i go to export... i get these errors:

20080207-dre6w5crd94qnpadjdwstx21tq.png

is this gonna cause a problem with the output, and how do i sort it?
 
Na, don't worry to much about that. I get that often. Most of the time it's just some of the crop and bleed options.

Play around with ticking/unticking a few options.

Just make sure you add the correct bleed in the document and the crop marks.

Should be fine.
 
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roysters said:
Na, don't worry to much about that. I get there often. Most of the time it's just some of the crop and bleed options.

Play around with ticking/unticking a few options.

Just make sure you add the correct bleed in the document and the crop marks.

Should be fine.
Click to expand...
those errors listed seem to be more related to colour profiles... is this not the real case then?
 
make sure all your images/vectors are all in cmyk.

I never get a colour error unless i actually forgot to convert everything.

This is why I use flightcheck afterward. It just reconfirms that everything is in order. Font's, images etc.

I wouldn't worry to much, if there was a problem the production house will flag it up.

Also, go to output settings and change the colour conversion to 'no colour conversion'
 
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