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Printer requires a separate white layer in PDF


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Hi everyone, I'm preparing label artwork to go to print on clear film. The printer has asked for a separate white layer. This is pretty normal on film but my current job is very complicated. Essentially, the inks are translucent so everywhere in the design that it is not clear I need to print white (think of it like a paper layer) and then overprint with process colours to obtain an opaque result.  I normally do a duplication of the artwork layers and merge all the content to create this plate.

This is all doable with the tools in AD/AP but I'm thinking that, because of the complexity this time, the final file is going to be very difficult to edit as a lot of stuff will be duplicated and require synchronised editing should there be a need for any mods.

Any thoughts, suggestions or workflows that you all use for this?

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  • Staff

If your printer company supports PDF/X files then you could place the white layer beneath the other transparent layers and they will then be able to separate all layers when printing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi @DWright please would you expand on your answer. The chap I'm dealing with at the printer was puzzled but this. I tried exporting using the three "/x" variants in AP but nothing came back with the white layer separated out. Online info on this aspect of the PDF format seemed pretty minimal. Due to time pressure the job is now done. I manually created the white layers. I would still be interested in how it could be done for future projects using this method as I had three change requests on the "final" artwork of this one and they were a fiddle to apply as the content and white layer had to be kept in sync. Thanks.

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