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I created a banner in Corel X3 with some vector scrolls in the corners. I wanted to get a soft background fade so I put a transperency "lens" going from dark to light. The scrolls looked great on my screen but when they got digitally printed you could barely see them. My printer person suggested I need to calibrate my monitor. He said he couldn't see them on his monitor. How would I correct this so that when I send off art to be printed it comes back looking like the way I designed it? Thanks.
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1266 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Transparencies do funky things when it comes to printing. Its not just Corel. I've had the same issue with Illustrator. I've sent files with transparencies to 3 different printers and got 3 different results.
The thing to do prior to sending the file to the printer is to "flatten" the image so that the objects with the transparencies merge with the background.
I recommend creating a test file containing different objects with different levels of transparency. Flatten the file and send it to your printer. That way you can have something as a point of reference when you create files in the future.
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Glenn, I've flattened images in Illustrator, but how do you do it in Corel? Converting to some form of rastor image has worked for me before, but I don't understand the flatten thing.
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You can flatten images in two ways. Transparencies and other effects do indeed do strange things to prints, sometimes no matter whether you are publishing a pdf or printing directly. Lenses or tranparency effects should always be flattened.
Whenever effects are used I have found it prudent to break apart the effect group, then the effect ie. a drop shadow, a contour or an extrusion, become simple objects not linked to the associated object that you created the effect from.
If you don't want to flatten the entire print, You can flatten just the transparency by selecting it (just the lens object) and converting it to a bitmap, of course you will no longer be able to edit it's properties as a lens.
If you want to flatten the entire print, but not the file, you can do it from the print dialogue box by checking the 'print as bitmap' box. you can select the print resolution. Note: for large items the print spool can get quite large. You can bring a 'print' to a print bureau by printing directly from corel using 'device independant postript file' as your printer. The .ps file produced can be printed directly by your print bureau without needing to open or import the graphic file.
Printing as bitmap is also one way to get around the dreaded 'postscript error' that happens from time to time with some files (usually ones with objects or elements imported from other software packages, rarely plain bitmaps).
Color calibration (monitor or printer) is a whole different animal but basically if you can print other images, photos for example, reasonably well, your print results should not be dramatically different when using a print bureau.
Descrepencies in calibration are nastiest when printing a light process grey, but can occur whenever you need to match exactly a process color with a spot color specification.
[ April 10, 2012, 07:01 PM: Message edited by: Mike O'Neill ]
-------------------- Mike O'Neill
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. - Arthur C. Clarke
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