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ashleyd41096807
Participant
November 26, 2018
Question

InDesign PDF not printing images

  • November 26, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 12914 views

Hi,

I've prepared a document fora  client in InDesign which has been exported to press quality PDF, however the client has reported that some images within the PDF document have not printed or printed incorrectly. The PDF views perfectly onscreen. There are no errors within the file and the problem images are a mixture of exported .png and .jpeg files, as well as objects pasted directly from Illustrator.

Is the problem likely to be occurring at my end with either the file or application, or at the client's end with the printer?

Thanks in advance.

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

jamesmitchell7
Participant
March 21, 2019

I've had this problem and I have just solved it (I think so anyway).

I'm using a Mac, Adobe InDesign CC 2018. I'm exporting a PDF and printing on an Epson XP-760. Document printed fine but with white spaced where the images should be.

I really don't understand colour profiles but I think the issue has something to do with them. Anyway, the solution....

I went to File, Adobe PDF Presets, [High Quality Print]. Chose file designation. In the exports settings menu I went to Output and changed Colour Conversion to Convert to Destination. Exported the file, hit print and I got images.

Participant
September 30, 2019
thank you!!! this solved my issue!
Community Expert
November 27, 2018

Sometimes "press quality" is a bit of a misnomer, as it's really just a starting point.

The High Quality PDF setting would be of similar quality, could you try this and see if it's ok?

Community Expert
November 26, 2018

Hi Ashley,

what's the client's PDF viewer where the PDF is printed from?

If not Acrobat Pro DC or Reader DC I'd suggest using Adobe Reader.

With it comes the option to print as bitmap. Your client should try this.

Regards,
Uwe

ashleyd41096807
Participant
November 27, 2018

Thanks for this suggestion.

Ideally I would try this but as the document will be distributed to multiple people across a range of organisations, it won't be an option to include specific printing instructions and I'm looking to ensure that the images will print from pdf from most printers.

Community Expert
November 27, 2018

ashleyd41096807  wrote

Thanks for this suggestion.

Ideally I would try this but as the document will be distributed to multiple people across a range of organisations, it won't be an option to include specific printing instructions and I'm looking to ensure that the images will print from pdf from most printers.

Hm.

Then I would suggest the following that is by no means meant for a commercial printing situation like offset presses, just for office printers and all PDF Viewers including viewers in browsers. From my German InDesign:

Set compatibilty to Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3).

Standard: None

Output > Color >

Convert to Destination

sRGB IEC61966-2.1

Include Destination Profile

Simulate Overprint

Test two cases with your document and see what fits best visually:

Edit > Transparency Blend Space >

Document CMYK

or

Document RGB

If you are working with spot colors also test two cases:

Ink Manager ( that's "Druckfarben-Manager" in my screenshot above )


[ ] Convert All Spots to Process Colors

Convert All Spots to Process Colors

Regards,
Uwe

Community Expert
November 26, 2018

What do they mean by "have notp rinted or printed incorrectly"?

Can you give examples?

ashleyd41096807
Participant
November 27, 2018

The images are printing as if they are absent - i.e. a white space, or with white bands across the image.

Unfortunately its a confidential document so I can't post screenshots.