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Dr Mick Mach
Dr Mick Mach
Inspiring
August 14, 2018
Answered

Artifacts in PDF?

  • August 14, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 10519 views

Working on a book cover to be printed through IngramSpark. Outputting as a pdf  PDF/X1a:2001 as required by IngramSpark.

Getting some weird lines on the resulting pdf file (pictured below) that seem to correspond to the bounding boxes of the images.  I've printed it out on my home inkjet and they don't seem to be showing up there, but not sure if a commercial printer will show.

Any thoughts on why this is happening/does it matter/how to fix?

Thanks

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer BobLevine

These are stitching artifacts from flattening and shouldn’t print to a high resolution device such as a press. An ink jet? Entirely possible.

That said, if I know the client needs artwork spec’ed for archaic formats, I design accordingly and avoid transparency.

2 replies

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
August 14, 2018

To amplify on Bob Levine's response, PDF/X-1a is a very archaic standard designed as a standard prior to transparency being part of the PDF imaging model. The recommendation by Adobe for a number of years and by virtually all print associations and standards groups is to export PDF/X-4 and to print from that. PDF/X-4 supports live transparency and full ICC color management, i.e. transparency isn't prematurely “flattened” and colors are maintained in their original ICC color spaces until the RIP process.

Every modern day RIP (including those used by IngramSpark) actually produce much higher quality output when presented with PDF content as PDF/X-4 than when presented with PDF/X-1a when the original content is anything other than opaque CMYK content. Requiring conversion of all content to CMYK and flattening of transparency is indicative of a Luddite and “blame the customer” mentality. So sad!

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    Miguel Agawin
    Miguel Agawin
    Participating Frequently
    February 19, 2020

    Mr. Isaacs, Thank you for all your insight in this thread! What is your view on flattening and converting colour in-house (Acrobat) for the purpose of having a consistent outcome/proof an ad client can approve?

    B
    BGCC-Comm
    Participating Frequently
    April 3, 2024

    I have a 1-2 pixel artifact coming from the other side of a spread, yet the bleed settings from Indesign are set to 0. How is this possible unless Acrobat is pulling data from beyond the 0? How do I export a PDF from InDesign without left/right spread artifacts?


    I have found an imperfect solution. I am able to use Acrobat Pro and manually select and delete the orphaned artifacts from the adjacent spreads and then resave the PDF. 

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    BobLevineCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 14, 2018

    These are stitching artifacts from flattening and shouldn’t print to a high resolution device such as a press. An ink jet? Entirely possible.

    That said, if I know the client needs artwork spec’ed for archaic formats, I design accordingly and avoid transparency.

    Dr Mick Mach
    Dr Mick MachAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 14, 2018

    Thanks Bob, good words as always

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