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Random bold text in printed PDF

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 25, 2021
4 replies
17385 views

Hi all

I'm a new user of InDesign and have typeset a book which is almost entirely text, with 4 images. The book is made up of 19 separate files, of which only 4 have images.

When I export a PDF x-1a (as per our printing company's requirements) and print it on my Konica Minolta office printer, random lines of text come out looking bold - or rather I suspect they are printing in registration black rather than pure (CMY0,K100) black. At first I thought it was a problem with the printer cartridge, but the same lines appear bold whether I print the text in portrait or landscape format. All of the text in the file is set to pure black so I don't know why this is happening. None of the images have transparency effects either. I tried putting the images on a separate layer but that didn't solve the problem.

The bold text appears when I export an x-1a PDF or an interactive PDF and print them; however it doesn't happen when I print directly from InDesign, or print to PDF and then print out the PDF.

It also doesn't seem to happen on every printer: colleagues have tried printing on their more basic home printers and the text appears normal. However I sent the file to our printing company and they reported the same problem on (presumably) a large office printer.

The issue also goes away when I print in black and white (thankfully, as that's how the book will ultimately be published). The problem is that we also want to make a colour version available on our website, and I don't want any users who print it at home to be faced with this bold lines problem.

Does anyone know what might be happening here?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Joe

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer KajsaKoo

Hi again!

I think I found a solution from here:

https://support.jukeboxprint.com/hc/en-us/articles/203297856-Overprint-Error

I checked both settings and I had to disable "Overprint [Black] Swatch at 100%".

Here is the analysis again:

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

It looks like whatever is causing those portions to be encoded to CID is using a different hinting scheme (or none at all) compared to the other parts' fonts. This would definitely cause the effect you're seeing on screen and on lower-res devices.

K

KajsaKoo

Participant

Hi!

I have a similar problem as the initiator of the conversation. What it means when an analysis from Adobe Acrobat means "overprint: on". Does the printer reprint the same line? How can I fix this problem in InDesing text?

K

KajsaKooCorrect answer

Participant

Hi again!

I think I found a solution from here:

https://support.jukeboxprint.com/hc/en-us/articles/203297856-Overprint-Error

I checked both settings and I had to disable "Overprint [Black] Swatch at 100%".

Here is the analysis again:

rob day

Community Expert

Have you checked the output values of the text in AcrobatPro’s Output Preview? Can you share the exported PDF/X-1a (not screenshots) via Dropbox or your CC acount?

J

J5F94Author

Participating Frequently

Hi Rob

Thanks for your reply. I've had a look at the output preview, and the text that's coming out bold seems to be cmy0k100, like everything else.

Here's a link to a PDF x-1a (not the whole book, but the problem is the same whether I export the whole book or just a chapter): https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/8babf5da-d9f8-41c6-46c6-eb0671237815

Joe

rob day

Community Expert

Yes, all of the text is black only, so the problem is in the print driver. Composite printers rarely output document CMYK values, which is what will happen in separated output. An RGB driven composite printer isn’t necessarily going to be a reliable contract proof fro a specific CMYK output profile.

Geоrge

Legend

>> When I export a PDF x-1a (as per our printing company's requirements) and print it on my Konica Minolta office printer

Sometimes the question fully contain the answer. Don't print X1-a on small-office printers. You have somewhere flatten transparency or outlined text and this places goes wrong when you try to print. Do PDF-X4 files for you SOHO printers.

>> However I sent the file to our printing company and they reported the same problem on (presumably) a large office printer.

Why don't they do this? If your print will be done on large office printer they're totally wrong to ask you X1-a. This old format is used to for print on photographic readout film or direct print on plate (CTP). This is not a format for print with SOHO hardware.

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

Could you scan the outputs you're talking about and post them here so that it can be seen just how much bolding is going on? Also, if possible, can you provide information as to the difference that happens when the job is printed on an ink-jet printer, a laser printer or an offset printer? I have seen with my own ink jet printers over the years that black always is made up of a mixture of the four process colors and that may be a factor here. Laser printers and certainly offset printers will provide much more color fidelity.

I tried making the three different types of pdfs you mentioned with identical paragraphs of text which differed only in that one was 100% black and the other was in registration. I could see in the pdfs a definite difference in terms of boldness. I also did notice that it seemed more pronounced with the X-1A and interactive pdfs. It is hard to say without seeing the printouts why, as you say, there is some randomness to all of this.

One thing you might try if you are running the newest version of InDesign (Version 16). The Find/Change option now allows you to search for specific colors and change them to other colors. Try searching for the Registration color and changing it to Black. Then see if the X-1A and interactive pdfs improve.

J

J5F94Author

Participating Frequently

Hi Bill

Thanks very much for your reply; I've attached a file below. Sorry about the quality of the scan; hopefully you can still see what I mean.

Page 1 shows the original bolding problem (with yellow highlights next to the lines that come out bold). Page 2 shows the same file printed black and white (no bolding).

However I'm now wondering if this could be a font issue. When I switched the text from Book Antiqua to Palatino Linotype, suddenly *everything* was in bold apart from the italics (see page 3 of the upload), though when I printed in black and white (page 4), the bolding disappeared again. When I then converted the body text from Palatino to Garamond, the bolding disappeared (see page 5), though it unfortunately still recurs elsewhere in the file so sadly it's not just a question of using Garamond.

The text in the file is definitely all 'Black', not 'Registration'.

Is it worth noting that this doesn't happen when I print direct from InDesign? Could it be something to do with my PDF export settings? I really can't think what though.

Screenshots.pdf

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

I agree that it looks like it could be font related. With a font this "shaky" looking I would expect a difference depending on the type of pdf or printer. The switch to Palatino seems to bear this out. I still think that the type of printer used could really explain the differences. I am often disappointed with the results that I get from my ink-jet printer compared to the results from a laser printer for the same job. The quality of type especially.

As to pdfs. Are you using File>Export>Adobe PDF (Print or Interactive) with the "High Quality Print" Preset?

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