SPECIAL PARAGRAPH SHADING

[SamLC]

Hello, I am trying to get a special paragraph shading in a text frame with two columns. I say special because I need the shading to be very wide. If I move the shadow to the right and left, the shadow in the right column covers the text in the left column. Do you have any idea to get it?

Thanks!

[Luke_Jennings]

As long as your text is black, and the background is white, you can set the shading to overprint, which will prevent the type from getting cut off. You will need to turn on Overprint Preview in order to see the overprinting (View> Overprint Preview). In addition, some non-Adobe PDF viewers may not properly show the overprinting on the exported PDF, and this is an area you would want to check on a press proof, to be safe.

[SamLC]

Thank you very much Luke! I had no turn on View / Overprintview. I did have "overprint" shading enabled in the original

document, but I didn't enable it in this test document. Thanks for let me know about turn on the View.
Now the PDF for printing would be fine (I must check and notify the printing so that everything goes well).

But I have a problem, how can I get an interactive PDF that allows me to see the PDF overprint in any PDF viewer? I can see the overprint if I export to JPG "simulate overprint". But do you know and another system to have the same in PDF?

Really.. thank you so much for your help

[Luke_Jennings]

In Acrobat & Reader you might need to turn on the preference- Use Overprint Preview: Always.

Other viewers, such as browsers, won't show overprinting.

[Luke_Jennings · Accepted solution]

A PDF exported from InDesign as an Interactive PDF will get converted to RGB, and the overprinting (and bleed) would be discarded. You could export to a Print PDF and add your interactivity in Acrobat. You can insure the overprinting will look correct in most viewers by using an Acrobat Preflight profile to flatten the overprinting- 

Tools> Print Production> Preflight> Fixups> Page Contents. If you are using other effects in your file, you should check them carefully in Acrobat to make sure they are appearing correctly, as this preflight is rarely needed or used, in my experience. If necessary, you could apply the fixup only to the pages where it is needed. (apply it to a copy and use replace pages).

[SamLC]

Thanks Luke. I already have simulate overprinting PDF. One solution was print booklet instead of export pdf. Inside File / Printbooklet / in the output menu I can enable "simulate overprint". So I save a .ps file which I can later convert to pdf.

Thank you for the Adobe Acrobat solutions too!

Your help was essential from the first moment.

[rob day]

Also, if the output is to an offset press it’s common for printers to ignore document defined overprints, so make sure you communicate that you have applied an overprint.

[SamLC]

Thanks Rob, this is very good advice. I'll keep it in mind.

Thank you!