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April 6, 2021
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Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets… not working in InDesign 2021 Mac

  • April 6, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 8829 views

Is Edit > Transparency Flattener Preset… broken in InDesign 2021? I can’t get any setting besides [Low Resolution] to stick, nor custom settings. Exporting compatibility Acrobat 4/PDF 1.3 (requested from vendor printers) produces low-resolution flattened images that I have to up-sample in Photoshop. Have tried everything. Used to work. Others have posted outside ASC that custom settings will save won’t stick either when applied.

Correct answer rob day

Interesting. This is what I have experienced whereby with some conbinations of effects and their settings I get adequate flattened resolutions, and other combinations not. I have come to rely on these effects as a designer since it is fun to experiment “right in” layout and get results fast, not like the days of building all the effects in Photoshop for PageMaker and Quark backgrounds. It’s just that from layout to layout—in the multiple projects I work on—I’m never quite sure if the InDesign effects will kick out in Agfa workflow or not with the exports required by some vendors.

 

So, what is your final thoughts on how to minimize these inconsistencies? (Thanks so much for your expert analysis.)


So, what is your final thoughts on how to minimize these inconsistencies?

 

Looks like you can put a long Drop Shadow on a top layer with opacity set to 0 and force the gradient resolution on all of the layers below. As far as I can tell, the lower resolutions are limited inner glows and shadows? That certainly would be preferable to manually creating image files. This works with the default [High Resolution] flattener:

 

 

I wouldn’t expect a fix on the InDesign side, the problem is really with the Acrobat and Agfa preflights flagging resolutions that wouldn’t actually be a problem on press. There’s only a 2% value change in your background gradient—no need for 300ppi to make that gradient.

2 replies

rob day
Community Expert
rob dayCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 7, 2021

The Flattener preset would only affect an Effects’ resolution (i.e., a drop shadow), not the image’s output resolution. Here’s a PDF/X-1a with the Transparency Flattener is set to Low Resolution and the image with an Effective Resolution of 400pppi exports unchanged. So it sounds like the problem is something else maybe missing links, or the scaled image’s Effective Resolution is too low?:

 

 

 

 

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 7, 2021

That's an archaic workflow but if you must use it, use the PDF/X-1a preset. I won't even pretend to know what's in that preset but it should be high resolution.

FWIW, which may be nothing, I would never use transparency for any job that had to be submitted this way. I'm sure others will disagree.

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 7, 2021

    I won't even pretend to know what's in that preset

     

    Hi Bob, the Flattener preset’s affect on live transparency exports (X4) has come up before, unfortunately I think the thread is gone. But even with PDF/X-4 exports, the flattener preset affects effects like gradients and shadows—the grayed out default High Resolution normally is adequate. With either PDF/X-1a or PDF/X the flattener preset shouldn’t affect an image’s Effective Resolution when there’s no down sampling.

     

    I can set the Compatibility to Acrobat 4, change the Flattener preset in Advanced, then set the Standard back to PDF/X-4 and the chosen preset will be used on the export. With AcrobatPro’s preflight I can get the resolution of the exported Effects. So this custom flattener I made passes a 250-450ppi resolution preflight in Acrobat:

     

     

     

    But this one does not:

     

      Dov Isaacs
      Dov Isaacs
      Legend
      April 7, 2021

      Interesting. Officially, the transparency flattening setting is supposed to be totally and utterly ignored in PDF export unless either PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, or PDF 1.3 is specified. If someone can privately send me the sample files, I will submit a bug report if this isn't the case or for that matter if you need to do anything with the transparency flattener settings to get the highest quality results out of PDF/X-4 PDF export. 🙄🙄

       

      - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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