PROBLEM: Moiré Patterns showing on striped garment images in catalog proof.
You never want to hear that there is a problem with a bunch of images when a client sees the proof from the printer. Especially when it is Moiré patterns. The images in question were photographs of clothing items that were all made of a seersucker stripe material. On the proof they looked terrible with the delicate stripe nature of the garment totally marred by the Moiré. Definitely not good!
SOLUTION: Place linked images into InDesign at 100% or slightly less.
In this case, the solution was simply a matter of not having the photos placed so that they were compressed by InDesign and therefore the pdf and print rip. The resulting compression did not work well with the standard line screen angle settings of the printer.
I use InDesign for the catalog layout and had standardized all the product images at 3 inches wide during final file preparation, however many of the images were in actuality being used at half that size or less. I changed the sizing on the effected images so that they were placed inside InDesign at print size, or a little smaller (not more than 10% smaller) and that seemed to do the trick.
The revised proof look good and when I press proofed things look even better.
So, for these conditions the solution was actually quite easy. If that hadn’t worked, the next step would have been for the the printer to change screen angle, which could have been a lot of trial and error.
NOTE: The photographs were clear of any Moiré pattern. This solution will not work if the patterns are in the photos themselves.
After 25+ years of creating art and design I still learn something almost every day. Of course most of that has to do with the ever changing nature of technology and electronic communication, which is of course a blessing and a curse. A blessing as there is always something new to learn and in many cases a better way to do something/a better way to communicate – a curse because there is no way to ever master that ever changing world and sometimes it feels like just keeping your head in one piece by the end of the day is a challenge.
I do still quite a bit of design for print. Yes, actual placing of ink on paper – static stuff. Yes, there is still a need and I believe that no matter how many technological advances happen, printed items will have a place in our daily world.
In talking over beers with my friend Michael, who is one of my go to people for specialized coding and website trouble shooting, I was bemoaning the time spent in trouble shooting a piece for print, and how one stupid little check box made for a whole lot of trouble. He said, “you should write a blog about such things.”
Really? I hadn’t thought about that. I mean there are Experts out there who know waaaaay more than I do. But he does have a point, real world issues and solutions can sometimes be overlooked. Perhaps because they are stupid mistakes, which people don’t like to admit to doing, or perhaps because you don’t run into those items unless a very specific set of circumstances is met.
Case in point, a couple weeks ago Photoshop was acting beyond weird. Tools not behaving like I expected and getting stuck in a setting, after relaunching Photoshop – rebooting – cussing a lot, I searched the web and found someone else had a similar issue due to a stuck space bar. No way, that is just stupid, but sure enough pounding on the space bar and unsticking it did the trick. I should have searched the web first, would have saved me a lot of time.
PROBLEM: Tools sticking in PhotoShop; acting in unexpected ways, especially in brush sizes and the like
SOLUTION: Stuck space bar on keyboard
And, I figure if no one else ever reads this, I at least will have my own log of issues so two years from now when the same thing happens and I can’t remember WTF, I can look through these notes.