Configurations for InDesign
InDesign is the most modern, most powerful page layout
program today. It has grown to eclipse the old
standard QuarkXpress in popularity.
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:
These presets are based on some assumptions
about your setup and workflow. For example, if you built your
INDD workflow with continuous tone images that have excessively
large resolution, then in the export to PDF, you'll need to set the
downsampling to 300 dpi. (The reason the preset doesn't
automatically do this downsampling is that for some situations, such
as with fine linework or engravings, you'll want to leave the
resolution higher.)
The presets also assume you have your bleeds
set up correctly.
For InDesign CS2 Start by grabbing these files
Signature_CS2_settings.zip
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.
For InDesign CS4, you can use
SBP CS4
Presets
(Reminder, set transparency blend space to
CMYK.)
For InDesign CS5 or CS5.5, you can use
SBP CS5
Presets
(Reminder, set transparency blend space to
CMYK.)
For InDesign CS6 and all later versions of
InDesign, you can use
SBP CS6
Presets
(Reminder, set transparency blend space to
CMYK.)
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