Importing PSDs w/ Transparent areas in Illustrator 10

In article <b83c498b.0310211537.715426ff.RemoveThis@posting.google.com>,
captphatsidy.RemoveThis@yahoo.com (Chris Brummel) wrote:

> I am just about to send out a comp for the artwork for a CD cover
> order, but
> I am having printing problems. I am using Illustrator 10 with
> imported
> PSD graphics from Photoshop 7. These graphics are on a single layer
> with a
> transparent background.
>
> When I print out any of my documents, I am noticing that it is
> printing a razor thin bounding box around any raster element. I have
> a drop shadow effect on a vector graphic that even generates a
> bounding box because it
> treats the shadow as a raster image.
>
> Not only that, but where ever there is a transparent section of a
> raster
> image, any underlying vector graphics print with what appears to be a
> slightly different color. Strange thing is, the color that shows
> underneath
> the transparent areas seems to be a more "pure color" than the
> sections of a
> vector that are outside of a transparent area (if that makes any
> sense).
> All images are saved CMYK in Photoshop.
>
> Any ideas?
> This make sense?
> I can't print til I figure this out.
>
> Thanks,
> Chris

Some printers create seams between raster and vector objects of the same
color because they do "enhancements" to improve the color of raster
graphics. You can test this out by creating a large square of one color
in Illustrator, and a smaller square of the same color, rasterizing the
smaller square, and then printing the result. Depending upon the color,
you might see a shift in the color of the smaller square.

Things to do to address this:

1. Nothing. It's entirely possible that the shop that prints your
artwork will be using a printer that doesn't have this problem. In
fact, even if you resolve it with your printer, the printer being used
by the shop may exhibit this behavior. You need to do a test.

2. Look at the printer settings. There may be different color settings.
Try different ones until you find one that doesn't exhibit the problem.

3. Use bitmap printing. This is an option in the Illustrator print
dialog that makes Illustrator rasterize the whole image and send the
raster to the printer.

4. Duplicate all of your art and hide the duplicate. Then select
everything and rasterize it at the appropriate resolution (your print
shop should be able to tell you what that is). This is probably the
safest solution.


-- paul asente
To reply, make the host be the same as my last name
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