EPS with transparency

[SannaSWE]

I´m working with an image that I have rendered from 3ds Max and taken it into PhotoShop to save it as a EPS image. Because then I´m going to open it in FrameMaker and then finally post it in WebBase. My issue is that I want the image background to be transparent, I guess i have to make some kind of workpath around the object to get the tranparency but how on earth save it so it´s still transparant in FrameMaker? I know it´s possible, have seen it but I just can´t get it right.

Hope anyone out there understands my problem and have a solution wating for me. Best regards, Sanna

[Arnis Gubins]

By default, FM imports all graphics with a background set to White. Select the EPS file and then select the Fill for it to "None".

[JanP64]

Sorry, but I can't seem to get this working for my graphics.

Have been trying to put round (or triangular for that matter) images on top of a non-white background, and am not able to get rid of the white "square" box around the image shape.

Same for pictures with flyout remarks (saved as EPS)

I tried this with EPS, TIFF, JPG, and with various types of clipping masks, paths, transparencies etc.

(working with FM9 and CS5)

Thanks for any help.

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

Jan,

You would not see the transparency in FrameMaker, only after creating a PDF or printing to a PostScript printer.

- Michael

[JanP64]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I knew, and was judging the PDF's only.

FM's display is not completely "wysiwyg", but normally very workable for me.

Have been trying to find more info on the subject for several days now.

My customer almost demands that I move to MS Word now. (where all of this probably just works).

But Word is "not one of my favorites" (to say it nicely).

I will just have to play with some more options.

Thanks again.

[Van Kurtz]

Make sure the anchored frame containing the eps graphic also has its fill set to None.

[Be.eM]

JanP64 wrote:

Have been trying to find more info on the subject for several days now.

My customer almost demands that I move to MS Word now. (where all of this probably just works).

But Word is "not one of my favorites" (to say it nicely)

Hi Jan,

in order to avoid this "horror scenario", we should solve your problem

I just did a quick test, and it does work. I've uploaded the test PDF including some "how-to" instructions here:

http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/Transparency2_p250.pdf

Regards,

Bernd

[JanP64]

Hallo Bernd,

thanks for your elaborate answer.

I'm sorry to report a negative outcome again.

I will take another look into my color settings etc, after a re-install of CS5 and FM.

The customer is not worried too much anymore.

I tricked the images so the problem is not noticed.

Thanks again,

Jan

(+ I will send a PM later today).

[JanP64]

It looks like the problem is solved.

With a lot of help from Bernd (behind the scenes we had some tests and mails):

1. Follow the procedures as described in Bernd's PDF (above).
2. Save the FM file. (in FM the graphic still looks wrong)
   
3. To make the PDF: Use "Save as PDF" and make sure that the "Convert CMYK to RGB" is OFF.

(Background: In the past I used to make my PDF's with "Print" and used printer: "Adobe PDF".

Sometimes I used to print to a PS file and used the Distiller.

Both of these methods lead to "wrong" transparency (in my case a white rectangle instead of the transparency).

My thanks to Bernd !

[Arnis Gubins]

Jan,

FYI, printing to the AdobePDF printer instance and running Distiller on the intermediate postscript file is *exactly* what SaveAsPDF does (albeit this goes on behind the scenes and does some of the housekeeping for you). If you were not getting the correct transparency behaviour when creating a PDF manually through Distiller, then something is still not correctly specified in your configuration.

[Be.eM]

Arnis Gubins wrote:

FYI, printing to the AdobePDF printer instance and running Distiller on the intermediate postscript file is *exactly* what SaveAsPDF does (albeit this goes on behind the scenes and does some of the housekeeping for you).

Arnis,

AFAIK this is only true when "Convert CMYK colors to RGB" is enabled. Creating CMYK PDFs with FM9 is not the same as running PS through Distiller in the "old" way.

However, my test file also worked with RGB conversion enabled, so there seem to be some unknown variables...

Bernd

[Arnis Gubins]

Bernd,

When using the new CMYK option, a different, internal header file (actually, the unix header pdf ps file) is prepended to the postscript output, but otherwise the "mechanism" to create PDFs is still exactly the same. A background temporary postscript file (.tps) is created, distiller is called in the background and told to use the joboptions specified in the SaveAsPDF window. When distiller has finished creating the PDF, it let's FM know (in the background) and then FM does it's housekeeping. All of this activity is hidden from the user.

[Be.eM]

Arnis Gubins wrote:

When using the new CMYK option, a different, internal header file (actually, the unix header pdf ps file) is prepended to the postscript output, but otherwise the "mechanism" to create PDFs is still exactly the same.

Thanks Arnis,

still wondering, how all those CMYK-related Bugs (OTF fonts becoming TimesNewRoman, custom spot colors or tints fail,  etc.) can happen then, if just the PS header is exchanged. From your description it sounds like a well-established piece of code is added (unix header), but the real outcome feels different.

Bernd

[Arnis Gubins]

Bernd,

Yes, the outcome is certainly different. Unfortunately, that header code is hardwired into the FM application - not like using old RGB version, where the content of the headerPDF.ps file is used (and one can edit this - at one's own risk). The CMYK header code also uses old Postscript Level 1 code, which may be why there are a number of issues with OTF fonts and spot colour usage.