White Line Appears Under PSD with Transparent Background in Exported PDF

[julia_0743]

Hey, everybody!
I'm preparing a booklet for printing. The booklet has a photo of a girl in PSD format with transparent background. I have added this image as a link in the layout on top of a brown coloured frame, I want the girl's hand to be on top of the frame. But when I export the PDF for printing (PDF/X-1a:2001), the part of the frame that is covered by the girl's hand becomes white. I'm using the latest version of InDesign. Why is this happening? How can I fix it? Thanks in advance

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[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @julia_0743,

Thanks for reaching out! I understand how frustrating it is to see the area behind your image turning white in the exported PDF, especially when you're preparing a file for print. 

It sounds like the issue could be related to how transparency is handled during export. The PDF/X-1a:2001 preset flattens transparency, which can sometimes result in unexpected white areas. A quick fix would be to try exporting your PDF with a different preset, like PDF/X-4, which preserves transparency.

Could you also let me know which operating system you're using, along with your InDesign version? That will help ensure we’re covering all bases.

If you need more assistance, feel free to ask. 

Thanks, 
Abhishek Rao

[julia_0743]

Hi! Thank you for your reply. I am using the latest version of InDesign (version 19.5). Unfortunately, using ‘PDF/X-1a’ was a requirement of the printing house. But I tried to save in PDF/X-4 standard. When viewed in the standard PDF viewer for Mac, PDF/X-4 looks as it should, everything is fine. But PDF/X-1 doesn't. Both PDFs look fine in Acrobat, though. Strange thing:)

[BobLevine]

How can you fix it? Stop using an ancient PDF standard and export as PDF/X-4. Stitching artifacts won't print on a high resolution device but there is almost nothing you can do to stop them from appearing on screen.

[julia_0743]

Unfortunately, using ‘PDF/X-1a’ was a requirement of the printing house.

[julia_0743]

And I also use the PDF/X-1a:2001 standard to make my preset work, which converts all text and stroke to outlines. I created this preset using the ‘Transparency Flattener Preset Options’. I don't know of any other faster and easier way to convert text and stroke to outlines in a large multi-page brochure inDesign. This preset only works when exporting in PDF/X-1a:2001. Maybe you know?

[leo.r]

Normally, there's no need to convert fonts to outlines and it's not recommended. But if you still do need to do this, you can use the "Convert fonts to outlines" preflight profile in Acrobat Pro.

[jayant98A4]

If we don't, then the printer guy complains about missing font how do we fix this? 

[Willi Adelberger]

Choose another printer. If the file is any PDF/X all needed fonts are included. Only if the printer opens a PDF in Illustrator he gets lost of embedded fonts. But this he must not do.

[jayant98A4]

Oh, okay. Thanks for the answer, sir. That means if I choose any of the PDF/X options, the font will automatically be embedd in it. I didn't know this. 

[Willi Adelberger]

If any font is not able to embed it fails to export to any flair of PDF/x. This is part of all PDF/x standards that all used fonts must be embedded. InDesign observes this standard. Choose PDF/X as standard, all used fonts must be embedded. If the user has used a font withoud the embedding permission, you are not able to export any PDF from InDesign which is PDF/X conform.

[jayant98A4]

Oh ok, one more question, how do we disable or enable the embed permission? Is that possible to do that? 

Thanks for your help. 

[Eugene Tyson]

Fonts should be embeded in the PDF - the only reason they might experience missing fonts if it's not embedded (that is a font without embed permissions) - or they are opening the PDF in a program like Illustrator which completely breaks the PDF up into complex masks and paths. 

Sounds like your print house is inexperienced, if they rely on an older print standard and convert fonts to outlines probably means they are doing things in inappropriate unprofessional ways. 

For your image problem - build the entire image in Photoshop - and then place the image as a flattened TIFF or PSD file.

A proper print house (every single one I've worked in over 25 years of this job has never rejected any artwork submitted, whether it's Quark, InDesign, Corel Draw, Microsoft Publisher, PDF, Illustrator) whatever format is submitted we would work the file and make it work for our system - I've never once in my life went back to a client and asked them to do anything other than submit their files whatever way suits them.

And that resulted in an entire magazine submitted in Photoshop - page by page - file by file - but we still made it work.

[jayant98A4]

This is how I fixed the image problem in InDesign. This trick might be helpful in future. 

If anyone is facing the issue of white lines around transparent objects, try this solution: select the background layer and click on Fx > 'Clear All Transparency'. In my case, I had applied noise, which caused the problem. If you still want that noise or any effect on your page, simply duplicate your background layer and after that click on 'Clear All Transparency.' This way, you can maintain your effects while resolving the issue. You should be good to go. Thanks!

[jayant98A4]

Hi, I'm sending a book for printing and sharing the PDFx format with the printing house. Since we’re printing 500 copies, we're going with offset printing. They’re compiling the PDF in CorelDRAW, but sometimes they report missing fonts.

How do you handle this? Do you usually share the fonts you've used in your project with them as well along with the pdfx?

Thank you so much!

[Eugene Tyson]

Compiling the PDF in CorelDRAW is absolutely nuts. 

The fonts are or should be embedded in the PDF - that's the whole point of a PDF workflow.

If it's not too late - 1000000% find a new supplier.

If you have to share the fonts to get it published then that's up to you - nobody can stop you.

If that's the way they work I feel really bad for you to have to put with their nonsense and antiquated bad workflows.

[BobLevine]

Your problem has nothing to do with this topic. Please start a new one as I am going to lock this one to prevent any further confusion.

[BobLevine]

+1 for finding another printer.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I wish everyone would stop suggesting "find another printer". It's not always doable or up to the person posting the question. A better suggestion would be to "suggest getting another printer next bidding cycle". 

To the OP--does the PSD have any blending mode effects on it?

Can you upload the ID file and image?

[Eugene Tyson]

I never suggested getting a new printer - I suggested that the printer was doing unprofessional things and that's probably why they needed to embed the fonts. 

My suggestion was to build the image in Photoshop and flatten it and place it - and that should negate the issues for this problem. 

[BobLevine]

If the printer is producing unprofessional results, there is, IMO, no need to cater to their needs. And, if there's text in the Photoshop file, I would certainly not flatten it...I'd save it as a Photoshop PDF, transparency and all.

[Eugene Tyson]

Or save it with 1200ppi resolution 

I'm all for the PDF Photoshop for text and have promoted that method before too.

But we're talking about circumventing a printer who can't handle a PDF properly.

So we can dumb down the PDF and make it work for those printers who are stuck in the past 20 years ago workflows.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

@Eugene Tyson Everyone was an too broad a word. I just see it constantly in various posts. 

[rob day]

Hi @julia_0743 , The problem you are showing in your capture where the stroked frame color is inverting is not the same as the "stitching" artifacts sometimes associated with PDF/X-1a flattening. Looks more like some kind of Blending Mode effect? Are you viewing the PDF in AcrobatPro or Reader? Does the problem show in InDesign if you turn on Overprint Preview? Can you share the ID file?

[julia_0743]

Hi!
In Overprint Preview mode everything looks as it should, no white streaks on top of the girl's hand in the photo. The screenshot with the white line on the girl's hand on the photo was taken when viewing the PDF for printing in the standard PDF viewer for Mac. Everything looks fine in Acrobat. I wonder why this is the case? Unfortunately can't contact the printer right now to see how they see it