InDesign CS3 Erratic White Box Phenomenon with Placed Photoshop EPS files

[T***@adobeforums.com]

I am using IDCS3 on an Intel Mac with 10.5.2, and since my department upgraded from IDCS last week, we have been having strange problems with linked Photoshop eps files in the on screen display, printing and exporting to PDF:

The files are linked properly and there is a transparent fill within the image box but, some linked eps files are randomly printing with a white fill. You can send the file twice to the same printer and have the white box show up in one print and not the other with no changes to print settings or the file. The white boxes are sometimes showing up in the on screen display and sometimes not. Also, the white boxes are showing up in exported PDF's when viewed in Acrobat and / or when printed. There are no spot colors or drop shadows in use.
Sounds strange. I know. But, due to its erratic nature, process of elimination is not an effective means of finding the reason for the problem.

Has this been happening to any of you?
Is there a way to fix this?

[unknown]

Post by T***@adobeforums.com
Is there a way to fix this?

Stop using EPS. TIF's a far better bet.

Bob

[T***@adobeforums.com]

That would require tens of thousands of re-links and thousands of file conversions. I know that you can place a tif file with a Clipping Path in InDesign and the transparency works but, the economics of that change is not an option at this point.

Thanks though.

[R***@adobeforums.com]

Do you need to change all 10,000 at one time? PS can batch resave as tif and ID will allow you to relink all instances of a placed image at once. EPS is going away. If nothing else, do yourself a favor and save new images as tif or psd.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Stick with CS2. If you're moving to CS3 for economics, it might be time to do the math.

I agree with Richard. This should be a simple action. Thousands of images can be resaved as TIFs in a day. At night even. You can batch them as you work on them, or all at once.

Experts opinion: what about resaving as TIFs named "xxx.eps"? Then an auto-update in IND will be a breeze. Would this create problems down the road?

(God I love the Mac)

J

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Where is EPS going?
The time spent on say a catalog project with 700 pages with 3 -5,000 unique eps links adds up. I do batch processing of Photoshop files often and that part is not a big concern, though it would be taxing on the network.
I appreciate the alternative but, I am not certain it is practical in this case.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Travis:

Shouldn't you be able to overwrite the "old" EPS files with "new" TIFs named as "xxx.eps". Then IND will auto-update them when opening the file and all you have to is batch the job folder looking for images to be resaved as TIFs. I can certainly envision a folder structure and image pool that would make this frustrating (if not near-impossible).

What about going back to Tiger? Isn't this a Leopard problem (and isn't 10.5.3 just around the corner - you could do ... nothing).

J

[unknown]

Giving a TIF file and extension of EPS is a disaster waiting to happen.

Bob

[J***@adobeforums.com]

How long can that disaster wait, though?

What are the pitfalls? RIP processing? You can change the files back to real TIF ASAP, but updating all images by hand in IND sounds to me like a disaster waiting to be scripted.

J

[A***@adobeforums.com]

You guys can argue the desirability of using eps forever, but nobody is actually addressing this problem.
Travis and I both work in the design department of a large company and we are dealing with a large inventory with thousands of images. Changing the eps files to tiffs in this instance is not a simple matter of inconvenience.
The problem we are encountering is either a CS3 problem or a leopard problem or, more likely, in tandem. The problem is only related to transparency of images with clipping paths.
Could this possibly have to do with encoding options when saving?

[unknown]

What are the previews set at?

Bob

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Preview: Macintosh (8 bits/pixel)
Encoding: ASC1185 or Binary

[J***@adobeforums.com]

"You guys can argue the desirability of using eps forever, but nobody is actually addressing this problem."

Ha.

J

[unknown]

We are addressing the issue. The fact is that the real fix isn't as easy
as one click. A change in workflow never is.

Bob

[@adobeforums.com]

Were these EPS files imported with the import option to "Render preview from postscript"? One way to possibly test for this would be to apply a drop shadow and see if it follows the content outline or just makes a big square drop shadow.

I am just curious if that has anything to do with it, not saying it actually does. It rather sounds like the old EPS preview bugaboo though, but it is disturbing that it is a randomized occurrence in CS3!

You could also try exporting the files as .inx and reimporting to see if that has any useful effect--preferably after setting your import options for EPS as mentioned above.

EDIT: There are also clipping options in that dialog which you could play with if this is simply a bitmap with a clipping path rather than vector art (I'm not completely clear on that from the description).

EDIT2: And Leopard really isn't a great idea in a production environment right now!

[T***@adobeforums.com]

In the import options for EPS files I am using "Use Tiff or PICT Preview". If I check the "Apply Photoshop Clipping Path" checkbox, the White Box does not show up or print... So far. Perhaps this will also work for linked eps files that preview fine but, print with a White Box.
I will do some further experimenting.
-T

[Buko]

Preview: Macintosh (8 bits/pixel) Encoding: ASC1185 or Binary





You need to save with a Tiff preview or you will have Problems.

I agree with Bob, Its time to leave the 20th century behind. Bite the bullet and start using PSD or tiff.

[A***@adobeforums.com]

Yeah. I see your point (all of you) but sometimes change is way easier said than done!

[@adobeforums.com]

I would try and permanently switch to "raster from postscript". There are various gotchas associated with using the EPS preview.

Honestly, it would be a pretty simple script to update (eventually) to non-EPS if they are easily convertible. Assuming there was a .tif variant of each one in the same folder, It would be something like:

set linkList to every image whose status is not equal to link missing
repeat with thisLink in linkList
set thisPath to (file path of thisLink) as string
if thisPath ends with ".eps"
set thisPath to "" & (characters 1 thru -3 of thisPath) & "tif"
try
relink thisLink to thisPath
update thisLink
on error
display dialog "Warning! Failed to update "&name of thisLink
end try
end if
end repeat

(That hasn't even been syntax checked, but it's essentially the loop you would run through.)

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Adobe InDesign CS3 got an error: Can’t get every image of active document whose status ≠ link missing.

[@adobeforums.com]

Alright, two bugs (it should have been "every link" not "every image" and characters 1 thru -4 instead of 1 thru -3) and I also wrapped it in the correct app and document tells. Not bad for just typing it straight into the web browser though! :)

This one has actually been run successfully on a document.

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS3"
tell active document
set linkList to every link whose status is not equal to link missing
repeat with thisLink in linkList
set thisPath to (file path of thisLink) as string
if thisPath ends with ".eps" then
set thisPath to "" & (characters 1 thru -4 of thisPath) & "tif"
try
relink thisLink to thisPath
update thisLink
on error
display dialog "Warning! Failed to update " & name of thisLink
end try
end if
end repeat
end tell
end tell