Configurations for InDesign

We accept book materials in a wide variety of file formats and work with them comfortably, but when we do layout work ourselves we use InDesign.

The InDesign feature of  Transparency is a powerful tool for designers, enabling exciting and sophisticated effects, but transparency can be tricky.  It has to be flattened at some stage for printing. This can take place either as the PDF files are being made (by exporting as PDF version 1.3 = Acrobat version 4), or it can be done as a separate step after the PDFs have been exported.

There are two critical elements in getting successful flattening:

1) The Transparency Blend Space and all of the (non-spot) colors in the InDesign file must be in the same color model, and that should be CMYK. Otherwise, colors can be converted back and forth among the CMYK and RGB models as InDesign or Acrobat flattens the files. This can lead to wrong colors in the flattened file.  The Transparency Blend Space can be set under the Edit menu.

2) Where regions affected by transparency overlap with strokes or type, the strokes and type need to be above the transparency layer.  Otherwise they will be affected by the flattening (they will be rasterized), and the quality of the type or stroke may change at the boundary of the transparency region.

Here are our presets for Flattening and for Exporting PDFs from InDesign CS2 and for InDesign CS3:

For InDesign CS2  Start by grabbing these files

    Signature_TransFlat_Settings.flst
    Signature_Export PDF_Settings.zip -- and unzip to make
        Signature_Export PDF_Settings.joboptions
    Signature_Print_Settings.prst

Before you load the other two presets, first load the transparency preset.  This is necessary for the print and PDF presets to work correctly

    Transparency Flattener Preset Instructions
        a)  Go to the "Edit" menu
        b)  Select "Transparency Flattener Presets"
        c)  Click on "Load"
        d)  Load  Signature_TransFlat_Settings.flst

Now for the others

    Print Preset Instructions
        a)  Go to the "File" menu
        b)  Select "Print Presets"
        c)  Click on "Define"
        d)  Click on "Load"
        e)  Load Signature_Print_Settings.prst

    PDF Export Preset Instructions
        a)  Go to the "File" menu
        b)  Select "Adobe PDF Presets"
        c)  Click on "Define"
        d)  Click on "Load"
        e)  Load Signature_Export PDF_Settings.joboptions

Then when you print or export to PDF, use these presets in the appropriate places in the InDesign configuration screens which appear after you start the print or export dialog.

If you want more technical detail, it's all in the Adobe white paper "Transparency in Adobe Applications:  A Print Production Guide", available from the Adobe web site here.

For InDesign CS3.  Grab one of these files and uncompress it:

    SBP CS3 Presets.sit    for Mac
    SBP CS3 Presets.zip    for PC

We have not provided a Print preset because it's sufficient to export to PDF.  Follow the loading instructions above for CS2 and you're all set.
 

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Dyn 1 - ver 8.7.6.1  © 1997 - 2008  Signature Book Printing, Inc.           Updated 07/06/08 09:42