Transparent image impacting shade of background color when printed

[Chris5CE3]

I have a green background box and have placed a pair of photos with the background removed, which are mean to allow the green background to be visible and uniform across the entire file. The images and background appear accurate and uniform in indesign but when I export as a pdf and print, there is a slight, but noticable tint difference between the image boundary boxes and the background, producing a slightly darker box around each image. Any ideas if this is a print, export, pdf or indesign issue?

[vladan saveljic]

did you try to export to PDF/X-4:2008?

[Chris5CE3]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tied it, but still have the same issue.

[Chris5CE3]

It appears to be something in how I am exporting it as a pdf? I tried trouble shooting and got it to pint correctly by opening the pdf in photoshop and printing it as a .jpeg.

[Chris5CE3]

I exported it as a jpeg and it printed fine. Any ideas on what might be causing the issue in the pdf format?

[Randy Hagan]

Hard to say without seeing what you're trying to do, but InDesign might not be the right place to fix it. It's not unusual to have a little color contamination to come into play when you start compositing color over color — especially when you are layering it in a program like InDesign which doesn't have the tools to correct for it.

If you have the tools and the expertise, I'd suggest that you may want to build your elements in Photoshop, then place the resulting element into InDesign. You can read more about color contamination — and how to account for it in Photoshop — through the link below:

Decontaminating color in Photoshop

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Chris5CE3]

It is a pretty simple design with a green box in the background. I have two images that I "cutout" in photoshop, removing the background. I have placed both images in front of the green background.

The pdf that I exported looks fine. However when I print it, the green "behind" the cutout images is darker than the rest of the green box. So when printed, it produces a slighlty darker green "box" around the images, corresponding with the image frame.

 I opened the pdf in photoshop and printed it as jpeg and it removed the issue. I also exported it as a jpeg instead of a pdf and it printed correctly. I even opened the exported jpg in photoshop, safed it out of photoshop as a pdf and then opened that pdf in acrobat and printed it from there with no problems. So I'm guessing it isn't a design issue as much as a pdf issue or user error on my part in how I am exporting it from indesign as a pdf? I tried exporting it in a variety of different pdf settings and most of the predefined options and they all had the same issues/

[Randy Hagan]

That's because when you opened it in Photoshop, you were essentially simplifying/flattening it as you output it from JPEG. That mitigates the color contamination thing you were seeing when compositing within InDesign and outputting to PDF. You could've been seeing an exclusively display issue, or getting an accurate indicator of possible output issues. But by working in Photoshop, as I offered, you worked your way around the issue.

Glad it worked out for you,

Randy

[Chris5CE3]

Thanks for the advice. It was for a header for a meeting agenda, correspondence ect. so I rebuilt it in photoshop and saved it there and will simply place it in indesign when building the new agendas, etc. That definitely seems to have corrected the issue.

[vladan saveljic]

where do you print? on your digital printer? perhaps your digital printer may be out of date

[rob day · Accepted solution]

It can be a common problem with composite printers and transparency flattening—print drivers don’t always correctly color manage and flatten transparency. The solution that usually works for composite printing is to export a flattened RGB PDF and print that as an image in Acrobat:

Set the Output to convert to Document RGB with the Compatibility set to Acrobat 4

Click Advanced and check Print As Image

[Angie M. Bechaz]

Thank you, this worked a treat!

[joel-j]

Let's say it's a bug, Adobe refuses to solve it. 

I've tried 50 different things: 

1) Convert images to TIFF

2) Convert them to PNG

3) Convert them to PNG in CMYK mode

4) Use Adobe PDFX-4:2010

5) Use Adobe PDFX-4:2008, and like 5 others

6) Convet the images to PSD and CMYK mode etc

Like 50 of these tipps and tricks. But it should work out of the box. There is no reason why something like this should happen. A 100 % transparent pixel, is a 100 % transparent pixel. It doesn't matter if it's CMYK, or RGB. 100 % = 100 % transparent. But Adobe refuses this logic and wants to destroy another 100 million trees, because people printed out things wrong all the time because of this stupid company.

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Changing file formats wouldn’t have any affect on how the print driver handles flattening—Adobe has no control over how your printer software handles color management or transparency flattening.

Try printing a flattened PDF—PDF/X-4 does not flatten transparency.

[leo.r]

But Adobe refuses this logic and wants to destroy another 100 million trees, because people printed out things wrong all the time...

By @joel-j

I know it's not exactly on topic, but printing doesn't destroy any trees. In fact, it's exactly the opposite: the more paper you use, the more trees will be grown for paper production.

[Vanessa5FBD]

What Rob suggested below solved my problem and pdf printed perfectly! Thanks Rob.