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Asterixx
Known Participant
June 28, 2024
Question

how to deliver a file with coloured fills concerning overlapping

  • June 28, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 730 views

hello again, 

 

obviously I am still a beginner in some areas about printing, so I wonder about filled areas today :). 

 

You can fill the areas by assigning a fill to strokes but also choosing the live paint (? "interaktiv malen").

I am not delivering - most of the time - real printing files, but the clients get a file with a drawing in RGB and CMYK and later decide what they do with it (clipart, logo). 

 

I wonder how much I have to think about overprint and overfill. 

a) when I choose live paint, then the fills don't have any overlapping with the lines. Sometimes in PNG exports this is visible, but it is ok. For PDF then I don't do anything with overfill or overprint?

b) when I choose a fill for a stroke (by clicking on a palette color) and expand strokes later, then the fill is larger than the "stroke area" so there is an overlapping of the two shapes (fill and stroke). Here also I don't do anything about overfill, but perhaps overprint? (usually black always overprint?)

c) do I even have to use pathfinder function for the b) case, to substract the shapes, so that there is no overlapping after expand strokes and I arrive at the a) case ?

 

As mentioned this is not about a specific printing, but I just want to deliver a nice AI or mostly PDF. I wonder if it is better in such a generic way to deliver overlapping shapes or not, and what about overfill and overpring. Hope it is not too generic :).

 

Thank you.

1 reply

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 28, 2024

You can't create trapping in that situation, because the eact values depend on the printing process. Also: Most of the time the printer does it in their RIP anyway.

And while you do not know how the artwork will be used you also cannot do overprinting. It might even be dangerous to use it, because your client might change the colors and then be surprised when they output the file. 

A
AsterixxAuthor
Known Participant
June 28, 2024

ok thank you very much!

and is it common to substract all the shapes from each other after expand strokes, or is this again something that the client or the printer perhaps even likes when the shapes are overlapping (naturally created, after expand strokes)?

 

Or is there any advantage of subtracting them so that they look like after live paint? (by the way, there could also be a logic in the live paint that a bit extra fill is created into the stroke, but there is not?)

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 28, 2024

Usually a stroke is applied to the center of a path and when you have a thick stroke, you will always notice the overlap.

A slight overlap of fill and stroke allows some editing. Whether or not someone wants to have it in their file and whether or not it is troublesome or healthy for production, depends on the nature of the workflow and the output process.

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