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With the Raster/Vector Balance set to 5, the Highlight pop-up menu offers additional options. At this setting, almost all of the artwork is still included in the rasterized region. Most (but not all) of the edges of the artwork will be rendered at the Gradient and Mesh resolution. Two portions of the outer edge of the bottom object are not included in the rasterized region, and would therefore be rendered as vectors. This Raster/Vector Balance setting could create a visible difference in the edge at the points where the raster and vector edges meet. Flattener Preview palette: Highlight pop-up menu When you choose Highlight > Rasterized Complex Regions, all elements that will be rasterized by the Flattener are highlighted. This graphic has the Raster/Vector set to 5, allowing some portions of the artwork to remain as vectors. If the Raster/Vector Balance is set to 5, and you choose the Clip Complex Regions option, the Flattener will create a clipping mask that renders the outer edges of the artwork with a clean, uniform vector edge. Flattener Preview palette: Clip Complex Regions This graphic shows how Clip Complex Regions affects flattening. With the Raster/Vector Balance set to 20, only the central portions of each object are rasterized. If you choose the Clip Complex Regions option, the Flattener will create a clipping path along the image’s contours. Note that in this case, portions of the internal circular edges will be rasterized. The places where these rasterized edges meet their vector neighbors may be visible. Flattener Preview palette: Raster/Vector slider This graphic shows the effect of moving the Raster/ Vector slider toward vectors. In this case, the Raster/ Vector slider is set to 20 and Clip Complex Regions is chosen, causing only some of the artwork to be rasterized. Achieving reliable print output from Adobe applications when using transparency 12
With the Raster/Vector Balance set to 75 or higher, no portion of the example artwork will be rasterized. As a result, the Rasterized Complex Regions option in the Highlight pop-up menu is disabled. Flattener Preview palette: No rasterization will occur In this graphic, the Raster/Vector slider is moved close enough to Vectors that no items are rasterized. Getting the desired results Achieving high-quality, flattened results depends largely on using the appropriate Flattener settings for your production process and output device. Improper settings are likely to cause undesirable anomalies or artifacts in the output. If undesirable anomalies or artifacts appear in the output, you can usually correct the situation by adjusting the Flattener settings or transparent objects in the original files. The remainder of this section describes some common issues you may encounter when working with the Flattener. Visual effects of rasterization and outlining Because the Flattener outlines or rasterizes type and vectors, it can sometimes produce undesirable visual results, such as jaggies, color stitching (described later in this section), or slightly thickened letterforms or strokes. These results can be more pronounced if the Flattener rasterizes or outlines only a portion of a complex design. The Flattener rasterizes or outlines objects based on the kinds of objects being flattened (such as type, gradients, and spot colors) on the file’s complexity and on the settings that are in effect when the flattening takes place. For example, if the Flattener rasterizes or converts a portion of a line created with a stroke into a filled outline object, the line may slightly change width at the point where the conversion happens. These effects can occur when printing to a PostScript device because PostScript processes strokes differently than filled outline objects. If you get this effect in your output, try choosing the Convert All Strokes to Outlines option in the Flattener settings. (See the rule in the image on the right in the Artifacts on the margins graphic later in this chapter.) Output devices and resolutions Sometimes rasterization is required as part of flattening. The resolution used for rasterization must be user defined because the output device resolution is not automatically available at the time of flattening. If the flattener resolution is too low, areas of rasterization may become apparent, and may not visually match adjoining unrasterized areas. If the Flattener resolution is set inappropriately high, flattening time may be long and output files may be large without a noticeable improvement in quality. Color stitching and artifacts Color stitching is the visible color transition that appears between objects whose coloring would otherwise be identical. It most commonly occurs when the flattener rasterizes only a portion of a vector object. As the following example shows, adjoining atomic regions can, under certain circumstances, exhibit differences in appearance, sometimes known as stitching artifacts. In this case, moving the text and the rule to a stacking order position above the object with an applied drop shadow would prevent them from being rasterized and rendering differently in the adjoining regions. The noticeable white gap between the two portions of the background is typically a display-only artifact when viewing a flattened PDF in a viewer that does anti-aliasing or smoothing. (In Acrobat 6 Professional, this option is called Smooth Linework in the Smoothing preferences.) Achieving reliable print output from Adobe applications when using transparency 13
Page 1 and 2: WHITEPAPER Achieving Reliable Print
Page 3 and 4: Creating transparent objects You ca
Page 5 and 6: • It is a placed Photoshop file (
Page 7 and 8: Chapter 3: Controlling the Flattene
Page 9 and 10: Creating flattener presets The proc
Page 11: Flattener settings and Flattener Pr
Page 15 and 16: Spot colors in exported Illustrator
Page 17 and 18: Chapter 4: Best practices As a serv
Page 19 and 20: Choosing whether to clip The top cl
Page 21 and 22: Rasterization of type The Flattener
Page 23 and 24: Object Flattener dialog box (Object
Page 25 and 26: 5 If necessary, click the More Opti
Page 27 and 28: Chapter 7: Flattening controls in A
Page 29 and 30: For similar reasons, you should use
Page 31 and 32: Issue: Live transparency in an expo
Page 33 and 34: Issue: Exported PDF with OpenType®
Page 35 and 36: Glossary A Atomic regions are the r
Page 37 and 38: Live effects are Illustrator operat

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