Tif Images with Transparency disappear when making and X1a PDF

Report · Nov 30, 2017

Hi

I am running a iMac.

OS 10.11.6 El Capitan.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2018

Adobe InDesign CC 2018

Adobe Acrobat 15.010.20056 (according to App Info)

I have retouched and saved my tif images as follows

File - Save As - As Copy - TIFF

LZW Compression

Mac

Save Transparecy

I do this with all my images.

And all of a sudden on two different jobs with two totally different

images and different documents, when I create the Repro X1a PDF

the images go missing.

I have done the following to try fix:

Opened psd and re-saved the tiffs and replaced the image.

Restarted my Mac.

Placed the PSDs instead of the tiffs.

Made and idml file of my InDesign file and re-opened and

replaced the images again and saved over the old document..

Done an X1a/3 PDF which just gives me white blocks around the images (as though they are not etched)

None of these have worked.

I would be very grateful for any assistance or advice please.

Attached screenshot

Thanks

Report · Dec 01, 2017

There should absolutely be an updated available to you. If you don’t see it, sign out of the CC Desktop app and then sign back in.

Report · Dec 01, 2017

Thank you I will do that.

And once again everyone

Thank you for your kind and patient assistance.

Report · Dec 01, 2017

Yeah, it's definitely got better in the last few years, but they're still asking for X-1a, even though it's unlikely that they're using RIPs that can't handle X-4, and they must get a lot of files that go over the 240% TAC. Quite often, when specs say X-1a, I'll send X-4 and everything is fine, but I don't take any chances with press ads that I'm unlikely to see a proof of.

Report · Dec 01, 2017

but they're still asking for X-1a, even though it's unlikely that they're using RIPs that can't handle X-4,

X-4 has been around for almost ten years. I don't think it will ever be common in automated workflows like magazine or online printing. If X-1a was actually causing significant output problems the switch would have happened years ago.

X-4 is great but really demands hands on guidance or intervention at the print end. In an automated print flow the printer will inevitably get this problem from a client, which the automation will not catch and won't be seen until delivery :

X-4 comes in as this

The SWOP press delivers this:

and they must get a lot of files that go over the 240% TAC.

But if the X-1a is made to their specification, with ISOnewspaper26v4 as the document profile and the Output Intent, the client would have to manually build a color or create transparency blend to exceed the TAC. It wouldn't be hard to at least catch the wrong output intent in an automated preflight.

Report · Dec 04, 2017

https://forums.adobe.com/people/rob+day wrote
But if the X-1a is made to their specification, with ISOnewspaper26v4 as the document profile and the Output Intent, the client would have to manually build a color or create transparency blend to exceed the TAC. It wouldn't be hard to at least catch the wrong output intent in an automated preflight.

I've had quite a few files come in with manually-built 400% rich blacks over the years. But I'd expect the most common source of excessive TAC for newsprint would be placed images that have been prematurely converted to SWOP, FOGRA39 etc. I'd guess they deal with it using device link profiles.

Both early and late-binding workflows require some diligence and colour management knowledge on the part of the designer.