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Versacamm + versaworks + PDFs = strange unwanted lines !
Hi everyone, I am just posting here to see if anyone else has encountered this problem.
Being advised by roland that versaworks is an .eps based rip, we tend to ask for artwork in eps format. However, design agencies and outside artworkers knowing best will often send over .pdfsNow this might be a common problem but its the first time I’ve had it happen.
I drop the PDF into the rip and set everything up as normal, file size 88mb output size 2000x4000mm tiled into 4x(1x2m)sections….onto md3…
First 1800mm into the print all looking good…. Then all of a sudden perfect random black lines…… Grrrrrrr…. Let the panel finish. Pause printer… Recheck artwork…. No random black lines !
Now I have a feeling that this is being caused by the rip not liking the transparencies in the .pdf… Am I correct ? ?
What do you find the best file settings and setup processes for giving consistent results for PDF printing in versaworks ?
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7 Replies
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Random black lines
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The only way to be 100 percent sure is to rasterise the PDF by opening it with photoshop and converting the whole thing to a rasterised image. I tend to then save as a tiff as they seem to give the least problems with versaworks. Just make sure you have the settings set to CMYK in photoshop. It will give you a massive file size compared to a PDF but I usually find its quicker than trying to replace the transparency effects.
We get it quite often but we deal with a lot of design agencies.
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Thanks for the reply Alex, yes rasterising seems the only sure way… But then we are back to the battle of file size vs image quality….
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I usually go somewhere between 160 and 200dpi, anymore than that and it’s overkill in my opinion.
Sometimes PDF files rip really slow in versaworks but tiffs are always pretty quick to rip. if you’ve got a gigabit network the file transfer should be pretty quick.
You could even print out of photoshop if you have the print to queue function setup in versaworks, so once the file has rasterised you won’t even need to save a copy.
Hope that helps, but yeah I feel your pain, for me it always happens right at the end of the job or when I’m not really paying too much attention to what the printer is printing!
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Transparencies , effects in general and drop shadows are the things that potentially trip RIPS and some cope better than others. When I send stuff off (from Corel Draw) I will alsways collect the effect ellements and convert them to a CMYK bitmap of 100 – 150dpi. The text or any other vector shape is put over the top to retain the quality of that and then the whole lot is sent as pdf either be printing to CUTEPDF or publishing within Draw, If you convert the whole lot to bitmap then you will lose some of the quality of your text although for banner work it wouldn’t really matter.
Alan D -
I would look at the way the customer has created the pdf – could you ask them to resave using older presets – eg PDF/X-1a:2001.
This used to cure most problems for us. -
HI,
I have very recently had two problems with pdf files and one being lines like those you have.
I called and they sent me another eps file that was OK but since I have been told that some pdf files have problems with png images due to the transparent backgrounds.
I was told to open the pdf in Illustrator and then save it as an illustrtor10 file which will flatten everything and solution things !!
I did try it with a pdf (not the one with the lines but another one) and that did solution the trouble.
Please let us know what solutions you come up with.
Good luck
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