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wilf1970
Participating Frequently
February 9, 2015
Answered

Maintain transparency and 'multiply' in InDesign when saving to PSD from Corel RIF

  • February 9, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 19612 views

Hi,

I'm new to InDesign but not Adobe and would like to ask about best practices for layering images that contain transparency.

My current project is a children's book that contains a master background with the appearance of an old Victorian journal. (brown, stained etc)

My copy overlays this beautifully but I'm struggling to place the artwork.

What I would like to do is create some artwork in Corel Painter (for its beautiful watercoloring), export to Photoshop and then place the PSD in to the page in InDesign.

Exporting from Painter translates the 'gel' layer to 'darken' in PS. I can change this to Multiply no problem.

When I remove the base layer in PSD (a temporary brown page graphic) the previously water-colored layers have an awful white fringe.

When I place this file in InDesign there appears to be no way of 'multiplying' the layer over the nice brown artwork I have for the page and the awful white fringe remains.

Did I assume too much? I figured that applying layer attributes would be common throughout Adobe's software.

I appreciate that this may be more of a poor workflow issue than an InDesign 'fault', but I'm curious as to whether anyone has any similar experience / advice.

Many thanks,

Mark

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer BobLevine

InDesign uses a different graphic engine and does not honor PSD blend modes. You can place the layers separately and set the blend modes in InDesign or add the copy in Photoshop and save as PDF.

2 replies

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wilf1970Author
Participating Frequently
February 9, 2015

I just wanted to share what I've discovered about working between Corel Painter X3 and InDesign.

Firstly there's no need for the Photoshop middle step.

In Painter I create the artwork using layers and export to TIFF.

I ensure that 'Save Alpha' is checked.

In InDesign I place the .tif file in to the document.

On the layers tab I ensure that the heirarchy is correct. For me this is moving the artwork to the bottom of the stack as the base layer is provided by A-Master.

I then go to Object > Effects > Transparency and set Basic Blending to Multiply.

I get the effect I am after and there is no horrible white fringe.

I don't know if this works with files exported to TIFF from Photoshop.

Thanks,

Mark

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 9, 2015

That’ll work on a white background but will cause the entire graphic to overprint on anything else.

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
February 9, 2015

InDesign uses a different graphic engine and does not honor PSD blend modes. You can place the layers separately and set the blend modes in InDesign or add the copy in Photoshop and save as PDF.

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wilf1970Author
Participating Frequently
February 9, 2015

Many thanks, Bob.

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