12
Helping customers prepare InDesign files
If you provide handoff checklists to your customers, you can use this section to adapt your
checklists for InDesign CS. The InDesign features described in this section are covered in
more detail later in this document.
Preparing transparency
For complete information on transparency issues, see “Flattening transparency for high-
resolution output” on page 50. To minimize issues with transparency, advise customers to
do the following:
•
Use color settings compatible with your shop’s workflow—particularly the CMYK (default)
and RGB working spaces. See “Using presets and settings files to further streamline cus-
tomer handoffs” on page 14.
•
Set the transparency blend space to CMYK (choose Edit > Transparency Blend Space >
CMYK).
•
Place Adobe native formats that support unflattened transparency: Illustrator 9 or later
(native .AI format, not EPS), Photoshop 4 or later, or PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5) or PDF 1.5
(Acrobat 6).
Adobe InDesign CS can flatten EPS versions of Illustrator files that intersect an object that
uses transparency, but results may not be satisfactory if the Illustrator EPS file was already
flattened at settings that are not appropriate for high-resolution color output.
•
Use Illustrator 10 or later for best results with spot colors and overprinting.
•
If pages using transparency include Illustrator 9 or 10 artwork—particularly if the artwork was
saved in Illustrator native or EPS formats earlier than Illustrator 9—use Overprint Preview to
verify that results will be as expected.
•
When using transparency with spot colors, use Overprint Preview to monitor the results.
Customers should feel free to use spot colors with transparency, but placed files created
with older versions of other graphics applications may cause issues that can be identified in
advance using the output preview features.
•
When applying the Difference, Exclusion, Hue, Color, Saturation, or Luminosity blending
modes to transparent objects that use spot colors, use Overprint Preview or the Separations
Preview palette to monitor the results more accurately, or achieve the effect using other
blending modes or techniques.
•
If preseparated files (multichannel or DCS) interact with objects that use transparency,
convert them to Photoshop files before creating output from the InDesign document. Some
Photoshop DCS 1.0 and 2.0 files may not need to be converted if they produce the desired
results. Note that Adobe InDesign CS can import Adobe Photoshop files containing spot
