Quark v7.5 Text Drop Shadows

[pragas]

We have a catalog we do every year and the designer uses Quark. He has white ko text throughout on top of 4/c images of clothing, applying a drop shadow to the text. Whenever we create a PDF out of Quark, using the Export PDF function with the same saved settings we've used in the past, we're getting weird results.

The text box is set to none but the PDF shows a transparent fill that's different than the image behind it.

I don't remember having this problem in the past, other than when we tried to use EPS with transparency and drop shadows back in the day. Since we're using straight PDF workflow, haven't seen this, until now.

I tried opening and creating from Quark v8.1 and the same results.

Any help would be appreciated. Going nuts trying to figure a workaround and really do not want to talk to Quark Tech Support. Ughhh!!!!

[irreality]

in your raster settings when you create your PS or PDF - you need to UP the Transparancy rendering options.... The higher... the better. Also- If the color in the bG has been designated as a spot.... make sure you change it to CMYK before you output. unless a spot is needed.... then you have a whole other ballgame.

[Shawn]

It sounds like you're having some issues with transparency flattening and/or Quark color management. When Quark breaks the image up into atomic regions for flattening it's either applying a different color profile to part of the image, or the resolution of the flattener is just different enough that it makes the flattened areas stand out from the rest of the image.

There are a couple of things to try. If you did contact Quark tech support, they probably would suggest that you draw a box over the entire picture and put a <1 % transparent fill in it. That amount of transparency is so slight that it's invisible to the eye, but it causes the transparency flattener to flatten the entire picture, not just the portion with the text box and drop shadow. That way the whole element would at least be consistent.

The other method, since you mentioned Quark 8.1, is to change your export settings in 8.1 to export the PDF with transparency intact. That will make the problem go away in the PDF since the flattening never happens. If your workflow handles live transparency then you should be good, if it doesn't, then you can always flatten the transparency in Acrobat Professional using the High resolution settings. I've found that Adobe's flattening is MUCH better than Quarks.

This video from Quark has a lot of good info on Quark 8.1 and setting up a live transparency workflow. QuarkXPress 8 - Live Transparency

Good Luck
Shawn