I made my bookcover in Canva. Now There are 2 issues I need help with.
The barcode I uploaded was in black and white colours only. When I save the entire bookcover, the barcode is saved as mixed colours.
I use in this bookcover a few pictures of which I removed the background. When I save it as a PDF, the printing company tells me it has transparancy issues.
To be complete: I save the bookcover as a flattened PDF (Best for printing) in CMYK colours.
Can anyone help me with the following:
How can I save this bookcover with an all black and white barcode?
How can I resolve this issue with the transparancy?
I have these options at home:
Canva,
Microsoft Publisher
Gimp
Krita
Adobe Acrobat (free version)
Donât do professional work in Canva. For best production results you need Adobe, or even Affinity. If this is outside of your knowledge and/or budget, then Iâd suggest hiring a professional designer to make the cover for you, using the correct tools.
I donât know Canva, but I suspect it imports RGB, then converts to CMYK, which is why your K only image is split too. 4-col black.
As Sprout mentioned, your black is being converted to a 4-color black for some reason.
Iâve never used Canva, nor seen a PDF file from it (though, I suspect I just did a job that started as Canva, but thatâs neither here nor there.)
If you have Acrobat, you might maybe be able to adjust the color of your bar code, depending on how you made it. But I donât know about the âfree version.â That usually means itâs Acrobat Reader, and thatâs all it does. Read files.
Is your barcode a vector? A raster? If vector, you just have to select and apply. With a raster, you may have to do more work to make it accept a 0-0-0-100 black as a color.
The other software options you have are useless.
A transparency issue coming out of Canva (and several other freewares,) Iâve heard from a few sources here, requires completely rebuilding the file in InDesign. If the transparency code is incompatible with PDF creation, a printer isnât going to be âfix itâ for you without charging you a lot of time.
Canva is made to use to print thru Canva Print Services. It isnât going to make it easy for you to take your file elsewhere. Why would it? Are you able to save an unflattened PDF? Save it as a PDF âpreserving transparencyâ? Or maybe even as a PDFx1a? A printer saying âtransparency issuesâ doesnât really tell you what the problem is. I have a pretty good sized list of âtransparency issuesâ that can happen anywhere from PDF creation to final output. About a dozen or so different ones.
Bear in mind, even with Adobe Illustrator or InDesign, it is possible to make a PDF file that doesnât print as intended.
As others have mentioned, Canva is a do-it-yourself website aimed at amateurs. Most forum members here are professional designers with little to no experience using Canva.
That said, itâs my understanding that anything colored in Canva with the hex code 000 or 000000 will convert to 0c 0m 0y 100k (black) rather than a rich (mixed) black composed of all the process colors. I could be wrong about this, though.
Donât use the jpeg version of the barcode. The eps version is likely a vector file and will deliver the best results. Whether or not Canva has the capability to enable users to modify the color composition of imported graphics, I donât know, but I seriously doubt it.
Personally, I think youâd be better off building everything in MS Publisher since you already have it.
Did you remove the photo background using GIMP? Did you do so using an alpha channel to create a transparent background instead of a white background? What company is printing your book cover? Did they say what kind of transparency problem you were running into?
As strange as it seems, most professional designers have little to no experience using the consumer-aimed tools youâve mentioned, so our advice on how to use them is iffy, at best.
The barcode is a jpeg file. I also have an .esp file.
I can save the cover as flattened. Print it on my own printer just fine. I even once designed a banner of 6,5 feet and it turned out very good with this Canva PDF. The printing company was surprised, because my PDF was so much smaller than they normaly got.
I used the background remover in Canva. In a new file I let Powerpoint remove the background, but it both gave the same result.
I now have contacted Canva. They are looking into it and will get back to me. I also have approached a graphic designer. Sheâs going to look at my cover tomorrow. I sent her the .eps barcode, so she can put it directly in the cover design. Fingers crossed that she can find a way to make it work. Otherwise it has been a lot of effort for nothing, and I have a deadline that is approaching very quickly.
Thank you for commenting on my question.
Greetings,
Sandra