Known Participant

Question

Indesign (Overprint Fill) bug? "White" does not print!

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
October 16, 2013
5 replies
20348 views

Prologue

I faced an issue that took some days to solve, with help from experienced professionals.

I feel it is a bug, or atleast there is something that can be done in InDesign software to prevent it from happening.

I share here as a discussion, as I wonder how this is not faced by anyone else (?!) before this can be reported as a bug.

Issue

My white text would not print. I felt I had made no mistake, or did I? or did InDesign not let me correct (overprint fill option is greyed out for white!)?

The specifics are illustrated in the attached images:

1. The color value of "white boxes" swatch which is used for text

2. As is view of content without Overprint Preview

3. As is view of content WITH Overprint Preview (some white text disappears) - compare the area below the MAPS title.

4. Inspection of visible white text

5. Inspection of invisible white text (the cuplrit is nailed!)

But wait! the overprint fill option is disabled (greyed out) but shows a tick! I understand/assume that for white/paper this option is disabled. but then how come it is showing ticked.

Solution (hack?)

- Change the invisible text to any other non-white color

- Untick "overprint fill"

- change color back to white/paper

- Now white text becomes visible and is able to print!

Hmm, now is that not a software bug?

This topic has been closed for replies.

samanthar91918670

Participant

I'm having a similar problem, except the text in question (in a table) is viewable when I have selected Overprint Preview from the View menu, but not when that option is deselected. Is there a similar fix for this issue?

rob day

Community Expert

That would happen if you uncheck Print Layer from the layer's Layer Options dialog. A layer with printing turned off will be in italics in the Layers panel.

If that doesn't work start a new thread this one is 4 years old.

K

Kathryn Klein

Participant

I believe that this IS a bug. I am a long-time InDesign user and pretty much know what I'm doing. I was working on a doc that I have used successfully in past versions of INDD - now open in CC - just to make a few minor changes. When I saved my production PDF, I found that one of my paragraph styles with type set to Paper was not appearing. Looked at the style and overprint was NOT checked, yet in the Attributes pane, overprint was ticked. No explanation for this. To fix, I simply changed the type color in the paragraph style to another color and overprint was mysteriously checked (though it had not been checked when the color was set to Paper). I unchecked overprint and changed the color back to Paper and my type appeared. THAT is a bug!

Peter Spier

Community Expert

It's difficult, but not impossible, to get paper set to overprint in ID. Did you have any effects applied to the text at any point?

rob day

Community Expert

Just curious, how? I can get a white swatch to overprint but not the default [Paper]

rob day

Community Expert

When you make a new CMYK swatch with 0 values (0|0|0|0) it is set to knockout and the Overprint attribute is not available, which makes sense because in process printing if a white object doesn't knock out it doesn't print—it's hard to think of a case where you would want process white to overprint.

You can start with a non-white mix, set it to Overprint then change the mix to 0|0|0|0 and it will remain as overprint with the Overprint attribute grayed out. So yes, if you start with a non-white CMYK mix and edit its values to white you could force it to overprint (not print). You can use your solution to change the overprint setting, or make the swatch non-white, uncheck Overprint, and set the color back to white.

BobLevine

Community Expert

Why are you using a created white swatch? Is there some special purpose here? If not, use paper.

I

IdamIndiaAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks Bob Levine and Rik Ramsay: <about why not paper> In my learning phase of Indesign (I am just a few months old user of Indesign), approaching things in a modular way, I thought using my own "white" will give me the flexibility to change it to a slight grey or something else later. that is why a "duplicate" white/paper color.

I will try using paper to see if it helps. But what I still don't get is: "If white cannot be allowed to overprint-fill (the property is greyed out) why changing that tick using my solution/hack helps?"

rob day

Community Expert

If white cannot be allowed to overprint-fill (the property is greyed out) why changing that tick using my solution/hack helps?"

When you made the swatch it probably had some value other than 0|0|0|0 and you set it to Overprint, then changed it to 0|0|0|0.

There's nothing wrong with having a swatch that's variable, but in general you want to leave Overprint unchecked when you apply color except for small black type.

Rik Ramsay

Participating Frequently

Without seeing the styles used or the actual file it's hard to determine. My initial thought is that you have a character/paragraph style applied to the text that disappears which has a "overprint fill" setting. Maybe this post has some further insight?

http://indesignsecrets.com/beware-overprinting-white.php

EDIT::// I meant to add this but my trigger finger was too fast. Why are you using a white process swatch when all you need to use is the paper swatch? White is unprintable unless it's as a spot color.

I

IdamIndiaAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for the link Rik Ramsay. Yes that link describes the scenario exactly as I faced. Interestingly the author says "It’s a subtle but dangerous bug."

Prologue

Issue

Solution (hack?)

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