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Question

Poor Printing Quality - PDF Designed On InDesign

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 4, 2023
8 replies
4935 views

I am having the same re-occuring issues with printing PDF's that are designed in InDesign. I have looked at other communities that describe random bolded text, which is the main issue. I have tried everything to try and fix it myself but cannot seem to get it right.

These are techincal datasheets that feature small text that needs to be high quality as they are likely to be printed for customers. Is anyone able to help?

I have attached a photo of the PDF rather than a scan because it shows the issue more clearly. It's subtle but it's enough to make the document look lower quality.

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Rickvictor1122

Participant

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with printing PDFs designed in InDesign. Based on your description, it sounds like there may be a problem with the font rendering or embedding in the PDF file. Here are some suggestions that might help you troubleshoot the issue:

Check the font embedding settings in InDesign: Make sure that all fonts used in your document are embedded in the PDF file. To do this, go to "File" > "Export" > "Adobe PDF (Print)" > "Advanced" > "Font" and select "Embed All Fonts."
Check the font licensing: It's possible that the font you are using is not properly licensed, which can cause rendering issues. Make sure that you have the proper licensing for all fonts used in your document.
Try using a different PDF viewer: Sometimes, the issue with font rendering may be caused by the PDF viewer rather than the PDF file itself. Try using a different PDF viewer, such as Adobe Acrobat or Foxit Reader, to see if the issue persists.
Try exporting to a different PDF format: Sometimes, exporting to a different PDF format, such as PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4, can resolve font rendering issues.
Check for overlapping objects: If there are overlapping objects in your InDesign document, it can cause font rendering issues. Make sure that there are no overlapping objects in your document, and that all text boxes are properly aligned.

I hope these suggestions help you resolve the issue with printing your PDFs i was also facing this issue in my website casinofindr poster and it will helpd me and my work is donw. If you continue to experience issues, it may be helpful to consult with a professional printer or a graphic designer who is familiar with InDesign.

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Jenny12358615Author

Known Participant

Hi All. I appreciate of all your replies and suggestions. I will try a few of these this morning and see what happens. Just for some more insight on this project. I am the designer of these documents and have created them in-house via InDesign. These datasheets are for a website. We need these PDF's to print easily for customers and only a few are planned to be professional printeted externally. The main objective is to have these PDF's printed by our customers on their own printers but we may occasionaly print them at the office for handouts.

Something worth mentioning. I didnt have this issue a few weeks ago when I originally designed them. This seems to be a new issue which I cannot identify.

I will try suggestions that are below and post any updates.

Thanks again for the help.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I think Brad's suggestion to put the text on a new layer above everything else is probably the most important thing you can do.

I would also suggest redefining the document as destined for web, if it isn't already, and make sure your colors are defined as RGB.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

When some lines of text look bolder than others, that is always indicative of a flattening issue.

Your page is almost 100% transparency objects, and that is affecting how your text is being handled. Your document is being flattened before it reaches your printer according to the setting in your Acrobat Print dialog, and because of that some, but NOT ALL of your text is being converted to outlines in the process. The outlined text will look bolder because it's no longer getting the benefits of the hinting built into fonts to improve their appearance on lower-res printers. Making it worse is that your text Black is not a pure 100K Black in this PDF and instead isn an RGB Black converting to a very rich black, as mentioned already by others in this thread. If you have built your document using 100K for text, then you need to change your PDF Export settings not to mess with that.

Attached is how the flattening is happening in your document. As you can see, the text that has been turned to outlines matches up to the lines of text that look bolder in your screen grab.

So, this may come down to a layering issue. Try create a layer for all your text objects that is ABOVE everything else, especially any transparency-affected objects.

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Jenny12358615Author

Known Participant

I have created a new layer for all text and ensured that it is above anything else on the document. The result is around the same, if not worse. You mentioned export settings. Which would you recomend I use.

It looks fine on the screen when previewing, just when I print I see this issue.

rob day

Community Expert

The result is around the same, if not worse. You mentioned export settings. Which would you recomend I use.

It seems like your print driver is not handling the transparency flattening correctly. You do have the option of flattening transparency on Export, so there will be no transparency in the PDF you send to the printer. You can also include a source color profile on the export—currently your PDF is a mix of RGB, Spot, and CMYK color with no color pofiles. Try this where Compatibility is set to Acrobat 4:

rob day

Community Expert

These are techincal datasheets that feature small text that needs to be high quality as they are likely to be printed for customers.

Also, the PDF you posted has 2 Spot Plates, which I doubt will ever be printed as extra plates on an offset press, so set the Spot swatches in your document to Process—double click the Spot swatch and set its Color Type to Process.

And the text in your PDF is 4-color which is probably contributing to the bolding. A default PDF/X-4 Export should fix that unless the text color has been set to RGB in the ID doc:

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

It would seem that these are PDFs exported and optimized for commercial printing. In such cases, it's usually good to have the designer export ones that are flattened and color-reduced (as described) for office-printer output.

If you have a back channel to the designer, ask for these alternate PDFs for office use, and for them to be included with any further work.

ETA: PDFs for commercial printing are also a poor choice for posting on websites or sending to clients; they are often quite bulky in size and will present display and printing problems on many third-party viewers, especially those integrated into browsers. Simple, flattened, RGB PDFs are recommended for all uses except demanding commercial output.

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Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

It would seem that these are PDFs exported and optimized for commercial printing.

The 4-color text would be a problem on an offset press. Also, the image and some of the blue text is DeviceRGB (no profile), which would mean the conversion to a CMYK print space could not be color managed. I think @Jeffrey_Smith’s question about the printing device matters—the PDF isn’t ideal for either offset or a composite printer.

After seeing the 4C text and spot colors, here is my assumption:

PDF sent to print provider > sees the issues mentioned > opens PDF in Illustrator > while opening in Illustrator, some text is outlined while some text remains actual text > PDF saved and sent to print device with a mixture of text and outlines, with the outlines printing bolder than text.

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Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

Are you printing to a desktop printer, or is the PDF sent to a print provider, and this is the result of their printer?

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Jenny12358615Author

Known Participant

I am printing to a desktop printer. It's a Canon Image Runner.

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @Jenny12358615 , Rather than printing the PDF, use File>Export>Adobe PDF Print and choose the PDF/X-4 preset. Printing a PDF saves a flattened Postscript file, which is probably causing the bolding.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Rob, the PDF was exported from version 18.2 (though not using the PDF/X standard), not distilled. OP is talking about printed output made from the PDF.

rob day

Community Expert

Thanks Peter, I read too fast and only saw "printing PDF's".

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I downloaded your PDF and printed it here on my Xerox Phaser 7800 which is pretty high end, but the only printer available at the moment. No evidence of bolding like in your photo, so I suspect this is a printer issue that will be apparent on some machines and not others.