Mysterious line shows up in pdf

[Daniël van Ginkel]

In my design I use a psd file that shows perfectly normal in InDesign, but as soon as I export my design to pdf for print, it shows a weird line to the right of my customers logomark. When I make the boudingbox of the image smaller, the line still appears at the exact point where the boundingbox ends (so it's not in the psd file, I guess?).

When I view the pdf in Acrobat and activate separations to move the pippet acros the line, it actually shows a change in ink coverage. I've asked my printer and he also told me this line will show up in the print.

How do I get rid of this, and more importantly, where does it come from?

Attached are a screenshot of the actual design, as shown in InDesign and a screenshot of a closeup of the pdf.

[Frans v.d. Geest · Accepted solution]

Meestal een 'afvlakking' van transparantie, ik gok in dit geval op de afbeelding geplaatst op de blauwe achtergrond, een 'stitching artefact'.

Exporteer je de PDF als een PDF/X-1a of als een PDF X/4?
Probeer eens te wisselen tussen die twee.

Het kan ook afhangen van in welk programma je de PDF belijkt, Acrobat of bv Preview van de Mac; die laatste geeft afvlakking vaak niet goed weer.

Wat is het kleurmodel van de afbeelding en wat van het kleurvlak (RGB of CMYK), zorg dat het blauwe vlak in ieder geval geen steunkleur is.

[Daniël van Ginkel]

Bedankt voor je antwoord Frans.

Uiteindelijk heb ik het 'opgelost' door de afbeelding zo klein te maken in de psd als dat deze ook gedrukt zal worden. En toen was de lijn inderdaad verdwenen. Dus het zal iets te maken hebben met het comprimeren voor de export.

Er zijn geen steunkleuren in het document en ik bekijk de pdf altijd in Acrobat. In Preview en Finder worden te vaak slechte of verkeerde weergaves getoond.

Ik heb het document als prf/x-1a geexporteerd, wat volgens mijn printer de juiste instelling is. PDF X/4 is niet beschikbaar in het export paneel. Ik zie die optie wel, maar kan er niet op klikken. Heb jij enig idee waar dit door komt?

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Oeps, een printer die nog PDF/X-1a vraagt? Die moet nodig een keer op cursus want dat is wel erg sterk verouderd...

PDF/X-4 zou gewoon in je export opties moeten staan, kies Bestand/Voorinstellingen Adobe PDF/[PDF/X-4:2008]

[Chad Chelius]

I think Frans is on the right track but I'll add my two cents. I can't see how you built the file, but I'm guessing that the image of the fox in a circle contains a blue background and you're matching up that blue background with the blue for the rest of the document. I'd create a clipping path that cuts the circle and the sword precisely, then place that in InDesign. It should alleviate the stitching lines that you're seeing. Also, in Acrobat, go to Preferences > Page Display, and uncheck Smooth line art. This will often cause those stitching lines to disappear. Those lines you are seeing typically don't actually print in the final product.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Yes, also worth checking. I answered in Dutch because I noticed that the OP was Dutch 😉

[Daniël van Ginkel]

The image is actually a psd file with a transparent background. If I crop the boundingbox of the image, the 'stitching line' shows up at exactly where the boundingbox ends. So I think you're on the right track here, but I am not sure how to solve this.

When I resized the psd to be exactly the size in which I will print it, at 300dpi, the image will have an effective dpi of 300 instead of 521 it first had. Doing so made the line disappear. But ofcourse I can't make numerous different versions for each size I would possibly want to use any asset on.

[BobLevine]

You solve this by not using 20 year old standards for creating the PDF. 

[rob day]

When I resized the psd to be exactly the size in which I will print it, at 300dpi, the image will have an effective dpi of 300 instead of 521 it first had. Doing so made the line disappear. 

Hi @Daniël van Ginkel , the line doesn’t look like a stitching artifact—more like a JPEG/downsample compression artifact, which your manual downsample to the 300ppi output seems to confirm. Have you double-checked the Opacity along the edge of the PSD with Photoshop’s Info panel set to Opacity to make sure all of the edge pixels are at 0%?

[Abambo]

It's not a bug, it's a feature! 🙂

The PSD file should only hold the logo data, no background. InDesign can handle that correctly.

The second advice is to use a PDF standard that supports transparency. PDF/X-4 does, PDF/X-3 does not.

PDF/X-1a does not allow for transparency (and other useful things that are allowed in X-4). So, the visual impact of X-1a and X-3 should be similar. X-1a should be used for long term archival. X-4 should nowadays be supported in all professional print services.

As stated by Chad, it's most probably only a screen artefact, as screen previews are optimized more for speed and not for accuracy. In prints, those artefacts are rarely seen.

[Daniël van Ginkel]

I've worked this way numerous times and have never had this issue before. I use InDesing and Photoshop. The image is a PSD with a transparant background around the circle and the sword and the blue is a rectangle made in InDesign and placed behind the image.

For some reason my, very much up-to-date, InDesign and Photoshop do not support exporting this file to PDF X-4. What am I missing here?

[Abambo]

If I remember well, my InDesign CS5 did export to PDF/X-4, the original standard is from 2007. So, it's probably not the latest technology advance in the printing industry. You should be able to export that.

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@Daniël van Ginkel wrote:

I've worked this way numerous times and have never had this issue before.

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It's a well-known issue in PDF. I encountered that when I started doing brochures design on my very first folder that we converted to PDF. That could be 20 years ago.

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@Daniël van Ginkel wrote:

I use InDesing and Photoshop. The image is a PSD with a transparant background around the circle and the sword and the blue is a rectangle made in InDesign and placed behind the image.

Sounds complicated. I would have expected having the whole design (sword and beast) in Photoshop, with a transparent background (as images are always rectangles…).

[Daniël van Ginkel]

I think I explained it a bit too much, The sword and beast and its backdrop in the circle are all one image layer in one psd file.

I use the latest version of Adobe CC software for any application. I read somewhere that not being able to access pdf:X-4 might have to do with the colour settings and colour profile of InDesign. Looking into that right now.

[BobLevine]

What version of Photoshop and InDesign are you using?

[Daniël van Ginkel]

Adobe CC InDesign 17.0.1 and Adobe CC Photoshop 23.1.0

So that shouldn't be the problem.

[Chad Chelius]

Can you share a package of the InDesign file?

[Peter Spier]

What is the intended output? Generally stitiching lines show only on screen or low-res prints, not on press output.

If  this is going to be a problem, one possible solution would be to create a solid color background image in Photoshop and place that in ID so both the image and the background are raster rahter than having a vector background (ID Native object).

[BobLevine]

Can you post screenshots of your export dialog box?

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi Daniël,

if the pre-installed PDF/X-4 export preset is grayed-out when you export to Adobe PDF (Print) then your color management is turned off. Turn it on and you will be able to export to PDF/X-4.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Daniël van Ginkel]

Hi Uwe,

You are right, it was turned off. I have no idea why it wasn't on, but have turned it on now and it works. Also, exporting in pdf/x-4 makes the line disappear, so thank you!

Do you have any advice on what would be the best settings for this?

I've now set it to what you can see in the attached image, on advice of an article I found. I named the settings and saved it, so I can change it out with other settings and get a better understanding of its functions.

[Laubender]

Hi Daniël,

best talk to the printers what setting for color management is appropriate.

Also: I would advice to change the PDF/X-4 export preset so that images are not downsampled.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )