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A
Anonymous
June 2, 2008
Question

shaded box shows up when printing using drop shadow effects on text

  • June 2, 2008
  • 3 replies
  • 38689 views
When we use drop shadows effects on text a background shows up on the printed copy.
We use Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard), Indesign CS3.
Suppose you have a photo as a background and you want a drop shadow on the text that is on top of the photo, where the text box is there will be a screened color on top of the photo. This doesn't show on screen. It's like the drop shadow goes all over the place.

We print on a Xerox Docu5000 using Spire CPX-50, a digital press.

What can do that? I don't think it's the resolution of the raster effects, I'm pretty sure
I checked that.

Thank you.

Louis
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    A
    Anonymous
    March 22, 2013

    I've had this probelm while pritning to my large format printer (HP L25500) and when it screws it up it's an expensive mistake. I've found that rather than exporting or printing to a pdf if you save it as a JPEG out of InDesign it will flatten everything and keep the weird box from showing up.

    Downsides:

    1) You get a JPEG for every page in your document which is fine for large format pritning but could be more trouble than its worth if you're doing a many paged file.

    2) If you're using bleed it won't come over in the JPEG. To fix that set your page to be slightly larger and manually add crop marks.

    Note:

    I tried saving it as a JPEG out of Acrobat Pro once I made the pdf (to keep my crops and bleeds), but the color went all kinds of crazy. This is why I say to export it as a JPEG directly out of InDesign

    I'm using CS5.5 running on a PC with Windows 7. I don't have this problem while pritning to any of the other output devices in the building (Canon 8500, Canon 6000, Konica 1050, or my RipIt Speed Setter).

    A
    Anonymous
    June 2, 2008
    I just realized that this happens with PMS colors, and not CMYK.
    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    BobLevineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 2, 2008
    http://indesignsecrets.com/eliminating-ydb-yucky-discolored-box-syndrome.php

    Bob
      K
      Kev.jones30
      Participant
      March 31, 2010

      I found that post doesn't help. I use CS4 and export my work as PDFs. I don't have to see it printed -- the file shows all text with drop shadows has some weird crap in the background whether I export using 1.3 (Flattener leaves a white line around the text) or 1.4 (black box.) This is really frustrating and a bug that Adobe should've fixed years ago since it has existed for so long.

      Shame on  Adobe. This is just plain shameful.

      M
      march67
      Known Participant
      February 4, 2013

      On behalf of Adobe and in support of Bob Levine's response ...

      Apple's "Preview" program has many failings in terms of its adherence to any recent-vintage PDF specifications, especially related to PDF in which any transparency effects and especially complex transparency effects are used. There is nothing that Adobe could do about these problems other than to dumb down its PDF generation to only support pre-flattened transparency as in the days of PDF 1.3.

      The problem isn't only with PDF created via direct export from InDesign, but also from Illustrator, Photoshop, and Microsoft Office applications!

      Apple is certainly aware of these problems.

      May we most strongly suggest that you directly complain to Apple in Cupertino, CA about these problems with Preview and maybe the problems will get resolved in a future MacOS update release.

                - Dov


      I know this is an old thread, but I need help with this same issue as well. It has nothing to do with Preview - as I am not using preview at all.

      I see an IndesignSecrets link that I guess had info on the topic, but it is no longer active.

      I am using Indesign CS6. The issue is with an object in Indesign that I have a drop shadow on. When I send it to my color printer (Xerox Phaser 7500DN) wherever there is a drop shadow there is discolored box around it. I cannot show this comp to the client this way.

      If there is an active link that says how to fix this, that would be appreciated.

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