Overprinting in placed file

[sPretzel]

Hello,

Is it possible to preserve overprint settings in a placed file (AI file placed into another AI file)? What I have tried so far discards overprint settings in the placed file. To preserve overprint settings, I need to copy and paste the artwork from the AI file (instead of placing) into the other AI file.

Thanks.

[Ton Frederiks]

Did you turn on Overprint Preview in the file that you placed it in?

[sPretzel]

Yes, and I checked the separations and overprinting is discarded.

[Ton Frederiks]

What are you overprinting? Spot colors, process colors?

[sPretzel]

My question is about preserving the overprint settings that are part of an Illustrator file, when that file is being placed in another Illustrator file, regardless of what's in the file.

[Ton Frederiks]

It is perfectly possible to keep the overprint in a placed file.

[sPretzel]

How? Because as I explained, in my case, those settings are discarded once the file is placed.

[Ton Frederiks]

What are you overprinting? Spot colors, process colors?

[sPretzel]

Perhaps you can explain how to preserve overprint settings in both cases, spot colours and process colours.

[Ton Frederiks]

With spot colors, overprint is kept on any backgound it is placed on,

With CMYK colors, it depends, if the top color contains any of the inks in the underlying color it will not overprint.

[sPretzel]

No, that's not the issue in my case. The overprinting is just discarded altogether once the file is placed. So I have to copy the artwork (which has overprint settings) and paste it directly instead.

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you share this problem .ai file?

[Ton Frederiks]

Was your problem solved? In that case, please share the solution.

[sPretzel]

Hi Ton. No, the problem is not solved. Attached is an image illustrating what is going on.

On the left, two boxes, one with overprint set for fill and stroke, the other without overprint. The boxes on the left are part of the placed file.

On the right, two boxes, one with overprint set for fill and stroke, the other without overprint. The boxes on the right are copy/pasted from Illustrator.

Below everything is a simple blue background.

With View>Overprint Preview enabled, you can clearly see that the placed file discards all overprint settings it contains. If overprint settings were honoured, the boxes on the left would look just like the boxes on the right.

Even though it bears no significance, everything is on the same layer.

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you share the files? I wonder why it works here and what makes your files different.

[sPretzel]

How can you share files here?

[Ton Frederiks]

You could try Dropbox or WeTransfer.com or CCfiles sharing other sharing facilities

[sPretzel]

Sorry, I can't share the files then with these methods. Note that if I embed the placed file, the overprint settings take effect again and the two boxes on the left look just like the two boxes on the right!

[Ton Frederiks]

Copy and Paste results in an embedded file, so that is consistent.

Which version of Illustrator are you using?

[sPretzel]

CS4.

[Ton Frederiks]

That's your problem. I can repeat it in CS4 but not in the recent versions.

[sPretzel]

Can you reproduce the problem in CS5 and CS6 too (assuming you have those)?

Is there a workaround that would still allow me to place the .ai file? I have not found any, except for the two mentioned earlier (copy/paste and embed) which are not ideal.

Yet another inconspicuous bug in Adobe software.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

CS6 has the same problem.

[Ton Frederiks]

"Yet another inconspicuous bug in Adobe software"

That has already been solved a long time ago and you found 2 workarounds.

[sPretzel]

I eventually got around this problem not by doing any of the above but by saving to PDF and placing the PDF file in Illustrator, instead of the initial AI file I intended to place.