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kaylalauren123
Participating Frequently
March 3, 2017
Question

How will white print in a raster image?

  • March 3, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1400 views

Hi there,

So I've gotten myself into a bit of a tricky situation. I've created pretty complex illustrations for an adult colouring book on Illustrator, so the background is transparent however some sections of the illustrations have a white fill because it was quicker for hiding bits in the background underneath certain objects rather than creating clipping masks.

I'm putting them into an indesign document for publishing and I saw that a lossless file type was recommended for complex illustrations in pdf documents as printers can mess up if there are too complex vectors. I was wondering if I export it as a transparent png, so some areas are transparent and some areas will be white because of some of the objects white fill, in a raster image such as png. Would the transparent sections just be paper and the white sections be white ink? I'm not sure if this is a stupid question or not but I don't want to pay for the book to be published to have it look weird with random splodges of white ink about, does anyone know a solution to this or if it isn't an issue anyway or if there's a setting I can put for all white colour (in a raster image) to be just paper and no ink?

If  I've made this sound too confusing, I can share some screenshots.

Thank you so much for your help!

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Doug A Roberts
    Community Expert
    Doug A RobertsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 3, 2017

    generally there isn't white ink unless you're using a specific white ink as a spot colour for some particular purpose. in process printing, 'white' means paper.

    don't go for a png unless you have to for some strange reason. AI files linked in InDesign should be fine; if in doubt, ask your printer how the complex illustrations will turn out.

    K
    kaylalauren123Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 3, 2017

    I'm using blurb and this is there guidelines:

    How to use complex vector-based files with PDF to Book – Help Center

    Would any of the file types they recommend be ok for this if some areas are white some are transparent or all white?

    Thank you for your response

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 3, 2017

    You have to ask yourself if it is really necessary to convert the Illustrator vector files into a bitmap format.

    Making an image will almost always produce a loss of quality.

    I suppose you made your files in CMYK mode.

    In that case PNG will be the wrong choice.

    But don't worry about transparency, the Blurb instructions say that you have to flatten any layers, that means no transparency.

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