Pixelated type - some text boxes, not all

[bysea]

I'm on Win10/ID 13.1 (latest) and can't get rid of the jaggies on type in some text boxes. When I'm typing in it, it appears to be fine, but as soon as I stop, it goes pixelated again. Also, some of the spreads have images and if I remove those images, the jaggies go away as well - I'm not sure what's happening.

This was also originally created in a Mac and now being edited on a PC. Any ideas?!?

Thanks for your help!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Please post screenshots including all pertinent Panels.

When you use the Flattener Preview to preview »All Affected Objects« are the texts marked as being affected?

Are images or graphics with transparency placed above the text objects?

[bysea]

I was able to identify that when I'm using the CMYK transparency blend space, text is not clear, but using RGB clears it all up, which shouldn't be happening. Yes, all text is above graphics and doesn't affect images.

Thanks.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Is the text itself transparent or is some Effect involved?

[bysea]

When I select the text box, it's normal w/ no effects (and nothing in the "fx" dialog is checked). I've reinstalled the fonts, check transparencies, etc.

Thanks.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Could you provide the file for testing? (Replace the text with Placeholder Text if it is sensitive.)

Is Separations Preview on?

[bysea]

Dumb question - is that the same as Overprint Preview, if not, where's that setting? It's quite a long doc - maybe I can supply a page of it that's represents the issue.

Also note that only text on colored or backgrounds with graphics are affected. Black on text on white background exhibit normal behavior.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The Panel should be listed under Window > Output > Separations Preview.

A Package of one affected page should either be sufficient to figure out what’s going on or not, but more pages should not make a difference either way.

[bysea]

Separations is off, but when I turn it on, it gets a bit better, but not full (for text on a graphic), but gets worse for text on a colored background. Another things - when I removed the graphics from the spread, the text came back to normal and when I replaced the background image the text was on with just a colored background, everything went back to normal as well.

Is there a way to insert a file, or upload one and then link to it?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

On this page one can directly post only a few file formats unfortunately, you might have to post a link for some file transfer service.

The screenshots you posted before where not very big, could you post some taken at a larger magnification maybe?

Do the graphics employ transparency in any way?

[bysea]

The graphic is a jpg with a "screen" setting at 30% - doesn't matter if I change it, but does if I remove it altogether.

File - https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvyZArO2RtbPiR5hB2LADx9RVITT

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Thank you.

I cannot notice a difference in the type display whether the graphic or a plain color rectangle resides behind the text element (see screenshot).

[bysea]

Well, I guess there must be something wrong with my ID installation, or some other quirk I can't account for. Assuming you're looking at it in the CMYK blend space? All other Adobe apps don't exhibit this, so it must be something in ID. Thanks for all the help.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

What are the Preferences > GPU Performance settings?

Is there a corresponding difference in a pdf exported from the document?

[bysea]

I don't have GPU settings anymore with this build (Win10) - is that only for Mac's or should that be listed as well for PC's (I have it w/ Pshop and Illustrator)?

That's the other thing - only in ID. The resulting pdf looks perfect.

[bysea]

Actually, I take that back. The pdf w/ cmyk blend space isn't quite as good as with rgb with the problem text. Looks a bit pixelated on that as well, but slightly better than ID. Ugh.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Could you provide the pdfs or screenshots (taken at a large magnification)?

[bysea]

SS from pdf - 125%

CMYK blend space

RGB blend space

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Thanks.

Did you take those screenshots in Acrobat?

Did you convert on exporting (Output settings in the pdf export dialog)?

[bysea]

Yes - SS in Acrobat...and I don't normally convert on export unless printer requires specific settings.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The Transparency Blend Space should not make a difference for the Type elements as they are not affected by transparency as far as I can tell.

I suspect this is a display issue.

When you open the two pdfs in Illustrator is the text still type?

[bysea]

Yes, the text is still editable, line by line.

[Test Screen Name]

Text -is- as effected by transparency as anything else. It may be outlined or rasterised If flattened. 

I wonder if the original poster is flattening transparency. If so, stop that! And don’t save as PDF/X-1a or -3.

[bysea]

Since it looks bad in ID to begin with, Acrobat seems to be secondary at this point. On those PDFs, I used High Qual, no standard and Acrobat 8/9. In Illustrator, I don't have the same issues.

[bysea]

For grins, I also reset all my app prefs (ctl/alt/shft), no change.

Other strange behavior:

• When typing in text boxes on color/graphic-laden backgrounds, the text will come back to nice, full text, but when escaping out of the box, it will all degrade again.
• Generally, it only occurs with white text on top of graphics and colored backgrounds (except for one case, where it's fine on a colored background in the same document). Starting a new document does the same thing, so not exclusive to this doc.
• On one page, when I remove the two graphics, the text comes back full and also the background color appears to change to the RGB blend space, but only on that document.

Ghost in the machine...