September 6th, 2008 by Stephanie Chan
Illustrator Transparency, Photoshop Resolve – Photoshop World 2008
http://www.deke.com (search for “Transparency”)
Commercial Printing – Postscript Printing Language
70-80% of Illustrator functions are not supported by Postscript
- i.e. gradient, transparency
Thus these features might not print correctly (does fine 99% of the time)
Workaround Solution:
- Rasterize before sending it to postscript
- Open the Illustration in Photoshop with really high resolution (300+ depending on your printing document & complexity of graphic).
- Opening in Photoshop will rasterize the graphic but will be okay with high resolution.
- Print from Photoshop or place back the graphic into Illustrator or Indesign.
- Keep text within Illustrator.
Can target the fill and stroke independently on the Appearance Window before going to the Transparency Window to change the opacity.
Transparency Window
- Knockout Group – turn on twick (1st = “-“, 2nd = “check symbol”)
- Combines everything in group so you do not see the overlapping sections
Masking
- Create shape & place on top of the object you wan to mask (in separate layers)
- Transparency Flyout – Make Opacity Mask
- Clip and Invert Mask (Play around to achieve what you want – 4 different combinations) –– Black = Transparent, White = Opaque
Blend
- Can blend between shapes/groups (must be organized the same)
- Object > Blend > Make – must have object A (blend) B
- Use blend tool > specified steps to add more objects
- Open the blend to access the path to adjust the spped and angle of the blend
Can apply Blend Modes to individual attributes of the Appearance Window
Blend Mode – designed for RGB thus may not work all the time in CMYK
- When Screen Mode does not work (black turns white instead of transparent) then change the # of CMYK to all 100.
Clipping Path
- Create boundry within layer & click on the clipping path icon on the bottom of the layers window