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Steffen Riek
Steffen Riek
Inspiring
March 13, 2023
Question

Overprint in FM not working

  • March 13, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 2314 views

Hello to the community,

it seems, that FM - even FM2022 - does not correctly or even not at all overprint.

I use warnings in which black text runs over colored backrounds. I've tried everything, but couldn't manage, that the text is not knocked out. What me also wonders: When creating a new, blank document, the standard black color is set to knockout ("Aussparen" in the German version). This is fundamentally wrong - you would never set black to knockout. This color is mainly used for text - and you would never want text to be knocked out (except in some rare cases where you want a maximum deep black).

I created new colors (e.g. black overprint) set it to cmyk 0 0 0 100 or 0 0 0 99 and to overprint: but no success. I also set the text above boxes in the three cmy colors 100 0 0 0, 0 100 0 0 and 0 0 100 0: but always the same result: the text is knocked out.

I also tried many different PDF settings, without and with using Distiller within the "Save as PDF" process and also "Printing to PDF" - nothing helped.

Has someone the same experiences? Or maybe a solution?

I would really be glad to get help.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    F
    Community Expert
    FrameMaker-dkCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 14, 2023

    @Steffen Riek I tried making a mock setup to test and I do not get the same results. My test may differ though. I have done a small video to show how it worked.

    Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk
    Steffen Riek
    Steffen RiekAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 14, 2023

    Hi StudioSm,

    thank you for the video.
    Kann you tell me your Adobe PDF Printer Settings.

    I am not allowed to select color separation because of wrong halftone settings.

    And second: What happens, if you do not create the color separation PDFs but a compound PDF?

    When open the Compound PDF in Adobe Acrobat, select the Print Production tool, and open the Output Preview and uncheck black from the color separations: will black then overprint or knock out? I added a screenshot.

    Kind regards

    Steffen

    F
    Community Expert
    FrameMaker-dkCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 14, 2023

    Hi Steffen. I think you are right that there is an error somewhere in the pdf print to separations. When I print to composite pdf and ask Acrobat to use the preview separations tool, the black over print is not there. Which is kinda strange! But also true it seems. I tried printing separations from Acrobat and overprint does not work. However.... printing to Postscript as I show in the video does work but I can't really figure out why the overprint settings do not come along in the composite pdf. It may be a pesky little setting in Distiller setup...

    Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk
    S
    sharonh19759294
    Participating Frequently
    March 13, 2023

    Hi Steffen,

    It seems like what you're doing should have worked. To eliminate a low-hanging fruit, have you doublechecked your paragraph and character definitions to ensure that they are using the new versions of black that you created?  The way you're describing the results makes me suspect that something in those formats didn't take.

    Steffen Riek
    Steffen RiekAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 13, 2023

    Hi sharonh,

    thanks for your help.

    I double checked it several times - and I think I had the proper settings.

    Please find attached a view screenshots showing all settings and results.

    I just used here a blank new document without any further changes to eliminate any side effects from other settings.

    Kind regards

    Steffen

    W
    Community Expert
    Winfried RengCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 13, 2023

    Hi Steffen,

     

    I am not a CMYK and printing expert. Therefore I do not know, if I can  help. However, what we need to know: How did you create your PDFs?

    Print to PostScript file with or without Acrobat data

    Via the Publish command with FrameMaker's PDF engine

    Via the Publish command with Distiller

     

    Any specific settings?

    If you used Distiller: which job options?

     

    Best regards

     

    Winfried

    Steffen Riek
    Steffen RiekAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 13, 2023

    Hi Winfried,

    thanks for your early response.

    I tried all the ways you named. Usually I use the Publish command with the FM engine, without Distiller.
    But I also tried the Publish process with Distiller and Print to PDF with and without Acrobat data.

    And I tried various job options, default and own settings (high qualitiy print, prepress, standard, changing colors to cmyk, not changing colors, various color profiles).

    Kind regards

    Steffen

    LinSims
    Community Expert
    LinSimsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 13, 2023

    Wait for @Bob_Niland. He's an expert on the color aspects of Frame. 

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