When looking at separations preview in InDesign, the image almost always breaks up. This is an issue that affects all our Macs at work, regardless of model and version of OS.
Has anybody ever found a way to avoid this?
Thanks everyone
What do you mean by breaks up?
One thing to check is if you have GPU performance turned on in the InDesign settings, this is typically only for Retina displays so if you don’t have high-end Retina monitors then consider turning this off.
It’s often the culprit on Macs for images breaking up.
Turning GPU on and off doesn’t make any difference. I’m using a really up top date macbook pro.
Here’s an example - as soon as I turn off the black plate, the whole shifts. Usually worse than that actually - you can end up with boxes all over the place.
For starters, let me tell you I’m a Community Expert on the Adobe Forums for the last 20 years, and I’ve never come across this + I’ve used InDesign for nearly 25 years and I’ve never encountered this.
Does this happen in a new, simple document. That way you can tell whether it is an isolated element or something in the file itself.
One Option
If it’s only this document - then try using File>Export and choose IDML.
Open that and save it as a new file name in the Indesign format.
See if the issue is still there.
Other Option
Create a new file same page size and margins
And move your Pages from the corrupt file to the new document
You can do this in the pages panel sub menu.
If you need more on it let me know
Then if it’s not that then leads me to believe something locally on the Mac is causing it, perhaps Webroot (it was chaos for me), other apps that affect InDesign - Magnet and most recently Typeface.
In addition, if you have any font or plugin managers running, temporarily disable them as they may be interfering - likewise VPN or other IT software maybe can be disabled for testing.
Do you run other software? Have plugins? Or any other external factors?
Does it affect the final PDF and if you check the separations in Acrobat’s preview to determine if the issue is only within InDesign or affects the final output - I mean does it look ok in Acrobat, or does acrobat cause things to jump too? Is it really things moving in indesign?
Would starting your Mac up in Safe Mode be an option, not connected to the Wifi/internat - and open InDesign and see if the issue persists?
If it’s ok in Safe Mode then it’s probably something locally on your machines.
You can reboot in normal mode, open Indesign and see if the issue is still there, if it is - then open the activity monitor and start shutting down other apps until the issue resolves (if it does).
It could also help to create a new user account on your Mac and run InDesign there to check if the problem is tied to your user profile.
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I remember seeing something like this a long long time ago. A really long time ago.
It had something to do with transparency effects, text and a stray Pantone spot color.
Sometimes moving all of the text to a top layer above any transparency effects would fix it.
Sometimes the Pantone had to be converted to Process, or removed if it was a stray detail that wasn’t needed for the design, usually found at the end of text as spaces or a return.
Thanks Smurf2. Unfortunately none of those things work. This has affected all of us at work for several years now. We’ve never got to the bottom of it. Thought I’d reopen the search for an answer though as I do spend a lot of my time checking work and turning plates on and off. It really does drive me nuts and Adone (surprise surprise) are no help whatsoever.
The same problem over several years affecting other people on multiple computers?
I’ve never run into this problem either, let alone having it affect everyone on the network.
I’m sort of picking up that you’re working in a prepress environment. Is that correct? If so, what happens when you RIP the file? Is the output still shifted? What happens when you turn the black plate back on? Do the CMY separations stay shifted, or do they move back into place? What happens when you print a color composite print? Does anything shift?
You (or whomever) wouldn’t happen to be using and reusing the same files and modifying them repeatedly, would you? If so, that’s a recipe for various underlying corruptions to sneak in and cause havoc. Have you tried exporting to IDML and opening from there? That can sometimes clean things up?
What happens when you export to PDF? Do things shift? What happens when you look at the separation in Acrobat? What happens when you print the separations from Acrobat?
Are you sure there aren’t mixed CMYK or RGB images in the file or weird spot colors? What happens if you rasterize the text before turning off the black? Does the problem only happen when you turn off the black? Does it never happen when you turn off the other color? What happens when you remove all the black text, but leave any other blacks? Have you tried removing the black objects one at a time to see if the displacement is tied to any one object rather of the black plate in general?
What are the commonalities in the files in which you have these problems? For example, do they all originate from the same place? Do they come from outside sources? Does the base art always originate in Illustrator?
I could go on asking questions and speculating for many more paragraphs, but without being there and working through all this stuff in a process of elimination, I’m just speculating.
Can you send me the files so I can test some things
And thanks for checking those things, could you also answer the questions that are there too.
Is it just this file or all files?
And the other questions
You could try the complete reinstall option of the creative cloud cleaner tool available from their website.
So, I’m an Artwork Manager with 30+ years of experience, so I’m generally pretty good at problem solving. I don’t work in a repro environment so am not ripping files.
I’ve tried installing/re-installing/changing previews/Turn GPU on and off/resetting prefs and cache… in short anything that I can think of.
Sometimes the image just shifts, or fractures or partially disappears (this site unfortunately won’t let me upload a video as I’m a newbie). The files are not permanently damaged - they look normal again when you reset the zoom to 100%. But part of my job is carefully checking files, so zooming in and out and turning separations on and off. having to each time reset to 100% is really time consuming.
I’ve tried files with all CMYK images and others with a mix - same issue.
Appreciate everybody’s help btw. Adobe have been no help
I don’t work for Adobe, but could escalate your issue. I haven’t seen your issue on the forums.
I appreciate all the experience you have, sounds a lot like myself, but every now and then there is a head wobbler.
I’d still like to dig around the file myself, pretty hard to troubleshoot when it can’t be replicated.
As I say that, a good step is removing items or layers and seeing when and where it starts failing.
I also have not really got definitive answers on the questions I’ve posed which is making it hard to diagnose.
Let us know how we can help.
I problem solve technical issues as part of my day job.
I think I can help you, but I need your help first.