Print options - Imagesetting - overprinting ???

[StephanP]

Hi,

I'm confused by mixed messages coming from the XXP documentation and the feedback I'm receiving from the people at the printer's.

First the people at the printer's instructed me to make sure that the black text in my brochure would be set in "overprint".

So I enabled the option "Always overprint black" in Print Options - Imagesetting.

Now the guy at the printer's is complaining that the text is cut out of the underlying colored boxes.
Duhh, that's exactly what the Xara documentation says it would do!

So, if I disable this option "Always overprint black", will that remove the white cut-outs of the text in the underlying colored boxes?
And will there be something new for the printer's to complain about?

(Apologies for my sarcasm, but I'm having a hard time delivering this project)

Stephan

[Luciano]

Stephan,
my advice is to use 100% K black (not composite) to get a very crisp text, than select it, right click and choose overprint fill.

And don't forget to put text un top of any shadow or transparent object, otherwise (when text is covered) it turns into a bitmap.

See attachments

Luciano

[StephanP]

Thanks for your help Luciano,

The 100% K - in fact CMYK (0,0,0,100) - was one of today's hard lessons.
It took me three PDF shipments to the Printer's before it became clear to me that 100% on de Gray scale affects the K value alright, but does not remove any remaining CMY, or HSV values.

About the overprint.
If the Printer is asking me to leave underlying colored text boxes unharmed, shouldn't I then skip the overprint fill option?

Stephan

[Luciano]

Overprint leaves underlying objects untouched, so it is very useful for black text.
With overprint, everything which is under is printed completely and black (which is the last ink in print) covers everything.

Pay attention to my picture; here overprint is not the one you find in print options, it is an object property.

Luciano

p.s.
Xara help file has some lines about it

[StephanP]

Hi,

My problem is that there appears to be no way that I can test or review this before sending the next PDF version to the Printer's.
I've made a small test file with three copies of colored blocks with black text above.
However I assign the attribute "Overprint fill" or "Always overprint black", after exporting to PDF/X and importing back again into a blank Xara document, I NEVER see that the colored boxes have the texts knocked out.
(see also Xara Help "Overprinting")

So, what if the Printer is complaining about knock-outs, which he doesn't want to have, what option(s) should I use so that gets what he needs.

BTW, I don't understand the manual here.
It explains the phenomenon of knock-out and the associated problems rather well. And by enabling "Overprinting", "The object's fill and/or line will then not knock-out the colors any colors below it. "

So, if I enabled "Always overprint black", then I don't understand why my Printer is seeing knock-outs.
I guess I'll have to go through the whole document and make sure that all texts receive a local attribute "Overprint fill"... and hope for the best, because apparently there is no way for me to check this before sending it off to the printer's again.

Stephan

[steve.ledger]

Maybe it's his (the printer guy) software that causing this and not you?

Just a thought..
Because I've used Xara to create files with text overprints with no problems from the printer. Nothing becomes knocked-out (cookie cut) and underlying objects are fine.

[StephanP]

Thank you for this remark Steve,

I've had so much trouble delivering this 20-page brochure file the last couple of days, that I'm sure I've lost all credibility within my organization, as well as the Printer's.
- First with the black text composed of a wild mixture of CMYK
- Then color saturation of photos of hands inside the document
- And now the overprint with knock-outs
It's good to hear that there are projects without such problems as well.

From the start I had a hunch that the Printer/Design house was not pleased with our decision to do the next revision of the brochure in-house.

Got to get some sleep again.

Cheers,
Stephan

[Luciano]

Stephan,

CMYK Professional printing is much more difficult than printing with usual office printers.
Print shops are not easy when they realize that the file has not been generated by a professional in the print industry; but don't worry you will quickly learn from mistakes and next jobs will be much easier.
Don't forget to export as PDF x1a which assures everything is CMYK (even pictures).

Luciano

[alexbozhenov]

StephanP,


"Always overprint Black" in the Print Options doesn't have action when exporting as PDF -- this is for direct printing from Xara.

To achieve your overprinting for the Black (0, 0, 0, 100) you have to find a Imagesetting tool bar in Xara, select (with a Selector Tool) your text and then press a button Overprint Fills (Imagesetting bar).

Then when you exporting as PDF you will get overprinted Black...

To find a Imagesetting bar -- go 'Window' - 'Control Bars' and list to Imagesetting control bar.

I hope it helps.

[behzad]

Definition: In most cases, when two objects of different colors overlap they knockout -- they won't print on top of each other. To intentionally print one layer of ink on top of another is to overprint. Overprinting is sometimes used to avoid the need for trapping and avoid gaps between touching colors. Spot colors intended to designate the application of spot varnish are also set up to overprint.

My question to you is why you would want to overprint all your text?
In my opinion there is no need to do that.

You mentioned your printers "printer's instructed me to make sure that the black text in my brochure would be set in "overprint".

I think it is time to switch to another printers. For all the years and publications I have printed, I never had to overprint my text.

If you printer has the latest then their systems would take care of trapping for you.
Overprinting is mostly used for spot colors and from my experiences do not apply to CMYK.

Checkout what overprint does at the following link

http://www.creativepro.com/article/a...-soft-proofing