Opacity Issue with placed EPS

[heather.cook]

Hoping this is just a setting error somewhere and not an actual bug.

I have an EPS logo that we have been using for years that has varying opacities. Today when trying to place the logo in an INDD file the opacity was not rendering properly in the program no matter the display setting nor was it rendering opacity properly on output. Tried making a new file, saving as EPS and had the same results.

I've attached the effected EPS file as well as a screenshot of the logo in AI next to the logo placed in INDD. I'm stumped.

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

Is this logo built using spot color or has it been translated into CMYK equivalents? If it's in spot color, did the logo use PANTONE spot colors? On a related note, which version of Adobe InDesign are you using to reproduce your logo? Have you recently updated your InDesign version, and did the problem appear at the same time you updated the software?

How does the logo print if it is output directly from Adobe Illustrator? When you print separations from both Illustrator and InDesign, how are those color seps defined? Answers to these questions will help both you and us sleuth the issue and help find the solution that will get you past your issue.

Randy

[heather.cook]

The logo is all white (C0 M0 Y0 K0) with certain parts at different opacities. No pantones/spots used. (The color behind it was just so it would be visible to show how the transparency is not translating - sorry for any confusion there)

We are using INDD 18.4. This same file has displayed and output correctly in previous versions.

When saved as a PDF from Illustrator it shows the different opacities.

For separations, in Illustrator the logo was unaffected, only the background changed and in Indesign the logo disappeared completely when I turned on separations view. I'm assuming this is because it's all white.

Hopefully that helps!

[Randy Hagan]

Respectfully, you need to make things easier on yourself.

Instead of using opacity, use screened tints of your business logo background green (e.g. – If your green field is a theoretical 100C/0M/50Y/0K, build yourself a 30% tint color build of 30C/0M/15Y/0K for the deeper build and a 10% tint color build of 10C/0M/5Y/0K) and apply those color builds instead of the opacity tricks. That 10% color won't work for newsprint, because the yellow percentage is lighter than the typical newspaper press' highlight dot, but for most any other output that light yellow percentage will be fine. Apply real color builds instead of opacity to make those shades appear in your reversed image instead of trying to use less "white" which is the reduced absence of a "no color" build in your Illustrator image.

That option will be much easier to reproduce across a wide range of graphic products. To be honest, I'm kinda surprised this hasn't bit you badly on multiple jobs before this point. Because flirting with transparency to get consistent color reproduction is really tempting fate.

Jus' sayin' ...

Randy

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Hi @heather.cook , EPS does not support live transparency— any transparent effects are flattened when you save as EPS. Try resaving as .AI format.

[heather.cook]

Hey Rob, it DOES work in AI format but what stumped me is that this EPS rendered fine in previous versions of INDD. Would like to find a fix so our print partners don't have to replace a bunch of logos any time we have updates on print on demand items.

[rob day]

fine in previous versions of INDD

I’m not sure how it could be version related. I’m still running CC2021 and when you save an .EPS out of any version the Save EPS Options asks you to choose a Transparency flattener preset:

If I place the above EPS in ID CC2021 the transparency does not work over InDesign objects:

I think the only solution is to switch to .AI or PDF/X-4. EPS is a 35 year-old format and has other limitations—vector EPS files can not be saved with color profiles.

[Willi Adelberger]

Don't use EPS anymore. It is an obsolate file type from the past millenium. It does neither support transparency nor color management. Only, if you save a file with transparency in Illustrator and open that in Illustrator again, you see the transparency, but not from the EPS itself, but from the fork in the file which allows you to edit in Illustrator. Even if you place an EPS in Illustrator, the transparency is lost.

Use instead an AI file or a PDF/X-4!