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_Ken_Nielsen_
Known Participant
December 31, 2008
Question

Preserving transparency - What is best filetype for variety of applications

  • December 31, 2008
  • 10 replies
  • 62954 views
Working in prepress, I've been asked to provide a file that now has an object on a layer with transparent background. This may be used in Publisher, InDesign, Word or what ever a client may be working with. Is there one best format that can be linked in all programs and still preserve transparency? Will the tiff format preserve transparency?

I've tried PNG, for one format, but the result gives a strange background anomaly when printing to digital. I know Photoshop is recommended with Adobe products. Need more input on this subject from those who know.

Thanks,

Ken
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    10 replies

    F
    fossal
    Participant
    May 16, 2010

    Thank you all who bother to give this wonderful tips. I have just got CS5 and am at loss with many problems. I am used to Corel. So this type of advise is really appreciated. Thank you all.

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    _Ken_Nielsen_Author
    Known Participant
    January 11, 2009
    Ïollow up: using Photoshop file with clipping path solved the problem, and with a beautiful result, got kudos at company meeting.
    W
    Wade S Zimmerman
    Participating Frequently
    January 6, 2009
    John Danek <br /> <br />AI CS 4 supports advanced tiffs, I have asked for this support for four versions now and you see eventually Adobe does get you what you want. <br /> <br />Here take a look this is a placed tiff no clipping path or clipping mask. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ym6rJ1UtNlKYlPxNRJ0TJ0i2Ul61W0" /></a> <img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1ym6rJ1UtNlKYlPxNRJ0TJ0i2Ul61W0_thumb.png" border="0" />
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    _Ken_Nielsen_Author
    Known Participant
    January 6, 2009
    I'm not sure I get that Scott, but it makes sense. Are you saying that a background is created in InDesign when printing? that sure is the way it looks: Semi invisible but with a definite square cut background that shows the actual image size. Does this happen with clipping path images, I'm going to test that today. Let's hope clipping will do it.
    N
    NotInUse
    Participating Frequently
    January 1, 2009
    Indesign flattens upon printing. The copier never sees transparency.
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    _Ken_Nielsen_Author
    Known Participant
    December 31, 2008
    I'm wondering how a digital copier is able to detect what is a transparent background in the placed Photoshop image, placed in InDesign.

    The transparent part is completely void of pixels.

    Hmm...
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    _Ken_Nielsen_Author
    Known Participant
    December 31, 2008
    Thanks for input.

    My problem with PNG is that is is showing up a 'ghosted' background, square-cut to the image size crop, so is not truly transparent (InDesign CS3 output to a Konica Minolta digital printer.
    A
    Anonymous
    December 31, 2008
    A .psd will hold up best. A .tiff will not support transparency, at least that's been my experience when placing .tiff's in Illustrator.
    F
    Forbidden Fruit
    Participant
    December 31, 2008
    PNG works in a variety of circumstances and can be read by a great many software applications. It is safe to use on the Web these days because all modern browsers support it. It's easy enough to convert it to a transparent GIF if you need to (vector art in this case please).
    A
    Anonymous
    December 31, 2008
    >Will the tiff format preserve transparency?

    Tiff or PSD.

    PNG for Word.
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