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Transparency and EPS interaction in InDesign
I'm running into situations where I cannot take advantage of Xinet's FPO image replacement because transparent elements in my layout don't get along with linked .eps art.
I am familiar with the prompt that advises me to "Optimize for OPI" in order to link certain images to HIGH so they can print correctly. From what I understand, this happens when transparent InDesign elements overlap with placed art. From recent experience, it also seems that even if only the bounding boxes of these elements overlap, I will not be allowed to print while linked to FPO. For instance, I have a layout with a big background eps illustration. Because I have a few InDesign graphic boxes on top of this background that are set to a transparent blending mode, I must print on High and it takes 20 minute to print the layout. If I delete the simple transparent boxes, the layout prints quickly via FPO. Before I get too wordy, maybe a cheesy info-graphic will explain it better(link after jump):
Anyway, if it's true that FPO doesn't work near transparency or blending modes in InDesign, isn't that a serious limitation to FullPress?
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It is really a limitation of InDesign and transparency and not a FullPress issue. Because InDesign HAS to flatten that transparency on print because Postscript doesn't understand transparency.
Now if Xinet could integrate the Adobe Print Engine into its RIP, the flattening could happen on the server and not the desktop.
The real problem in this scenario that could be fixed is the fact that it takes 20 minutes to print your layout. With processor speeds these days and gig-e ethernet and fast rips and printers, it should never take 20 minutes to leave your desktop even with full 300dpi images scaled rotated and blended in InDesign.
I wondered if it was an InDesign issue. Thanks for the info. Is it even in the realm of possibility for Xinet to integrate the Adobe Print Engine, or is that just wishful thinking?
This particular layout also took at least 20 minutes to print at our vendors and pubs... and in some cases it didn't print at all. Eventually we were able to simplify it by rasterizing part of it. Basically it was built to look pretty, but not with any consideration for production.
I don't understand why design schools are teaching people to do print layouts in Illustrator and not in InDesign! I especially love it when a multi-page layout gets tiled in rows across one huge Illustrator doc...