Quark Forums

I don't usually get into this area, so bear with me while I try and describe the situation.

We have a coloured 'corner' to right hand pages, which was created (by another company) by cutting out part of a shape. This means that the type on the right hand side of rectos is 'on top' of where the shape would have been (but because it's been cut out there isn't actually any colour behind the type).

The coloured area has a default trapping of background 0.144pt

 Occasionally, the text box has been sent to the back, having no obvious effect on the page, but when we pdf it Quark applies spread to the type, and it looks bold.

What I want to know is how permanent this is - when we print the PDF's the boldening is visible. But our repro department assure me that the printer's processes will over-ride this spread. I don't believe them and want to go through checking all pages so the text is at the front.

 Can the output process effectively change what the PDF looks like on screen? I'm probably not making myself clear....

 Emma

... can link to an image if anyone can remind me how...

First of all if it's already trapped in the PDF there will be no easy way to un-trap it, no matter what rip settings are used. Why not just change all the trapping to knock out? I have a feeling what your seeing isn't a trap at all tho as .144 of a point is virtually no trap at all. I wonder if Transparency is the culprit?

Aha, I'd forgotten (big thing to forget...) that the coloured area has a drop shadow! Take that off and it PDFs correctly even with text to back. So yes, I think it is transparency. (I'm new to Quark 7, the whole drop shadow/transparency thing)

 My question still stands though - how on earth could that nasty spread (very visible) be eliminated if it's on the PDF? Our repro department assured me that the job would print fine, but I insisted on re-supplying PDFs with the box brought to the front. I was made to feel I was creating a lot of unnecessary work, but it seems to me very reckless to supply a printer with PDFs that look wrong, even when an 'expert' is telling you they'll print ok.

Sounds like you got bad information. Always best to check your PDF's, if transparency is used, because Quark is still using postscript to make the PDF, and it needs to be flattened, unlike just about ever other page-layout program.

Emma:

My question still stands though - how on earth could that nasty spread (very visible) be eliminated if it's on the PDF? Our repro department assured me that the job would print fine, but I insisted on re-supplying PDFs with the box brought to the front. I was made to feel I was creating a lot of unnecessary work, but it seems to me very reckless to supply a printer with PDFs that look wrong, even when an 'expert' is telling you they'll print ok.

Well it couldn't be eliminated on the pdf because what you are seeing is not a spread nor anything to do with trapping. Almaink was spot on when he said it was transparency related. Zoom right in and you'd see that its been turned into a picture and probably at 300dpi (which is low res for text). The reason the 'experts' gave you the answers is probably down to your initial assumption that it was trapping, The + & - Trap settings from quark never make it into a composite PDF (only overprints). It if it looks wrong on the final PDF it usually will print wrong.