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The Adobe Website and Transparency

The transparency feature in InDesign is a powerful, creative option that many publishers are using in their layouts. How to use it effectively and ensure it produces properly is the question. Because InDesign can apply transparency to both vector and raster elements, when combining those elements together, flattening decisions are required to determine how these elements combine when they're output. Features that invoke transparency include

• The Transparency palette (found on the Window pull-down menu)

• Drop Shadow (found on the Object pull-down menu)

• Feather (found on the Object pull-down menu)

When any of these features are used, transparency is invoked. You can confirm this by looking at the Pages palette. Pages that contain transparency have a checkerboard appearance. This is an Adobe convention used throughout the Creative Suite to indicate transparency.

Assuming you intend to print the publication or export it in a PDF version lower than 6.0, you will need to flatten it. You can flatten at the page level using the Flattener Preview palette or the Pages palette or at the document level while printing or exporting.

For more information on flattening, visit Adobe's website for an excellent guide on the topic. You can download it as a PDF and keep it as a desktop reference. Use the following URL:

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/pdfs/dgt.pdf