Transparency blend mode not printing

[jorns7297805]

Hi all

I have put an effect on a couple of pictures to decrease the saturation of colours except for the colour black. To apply this effect I used the following set up:

• layer 1: image (jpeg)
• layer 2: black rectangle on top of the image
  • object > effect > transparency set to 'screen'

On screen the effect looks perfect, but when I print my document the effect disappears. The original colours of the image are printed.

In my advanced print settings I have already selected normal and high resolution and I have used a preset with a raster/vector balance of 0 (being the opposite of the high resolution setting which is 100). There is no difference visible at all.

If I export the file to PDF, the effect does work, but then another problem appears. When I print directly from InDesign, the colours that are printed match the colours I used in InDesign. When I print the PDF file, the colours are entirely different. For that reason, I want to be able to print directly from InDesign instead of creating a PDF.

Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

Kind regards

[BobLevine]

Why not just fix the photo in Photoshop?

[jorns7297805]

Because I will apply the effect to a lot of images. Actually the first layer mentioned above is a placeholder. Together with the black rectangle they form a group. I added it to my CC library. Then I can just drag this group to my document, replace the placeholder with the correct picture and the effect is applied immediately. If there's no solution, I will have to fix all the images (about a hundred) in photoshop... 

[rob day]

It sounds like your print driver is not handling the transparency flattening correctly. Try exporting a PDF that handles the flattening and color management on export. Set your Output tab to this where Acrobat 4 forces the flattening and Document RGB including profiles manages the color into a single RGB color space:

[jtanny2]

I tried this (but for a CMYK document) and it worked perfectly. Thanks!

[rob day]

Also some composite printers color manage vectors differently than rasters. This has come up before and checking Print as Image in Acrobat’s Print>Advanced dialog might help.

[jorns7297805]

Thanks for the help. I'll try this soon and will get back to you. 

[Marketing_IPCC]

Make sure you are not using any spot colors. I had the same problem. Once I converted all of the colors in my palette from spot to process, this solved the problem.