Shaded squares under my drop shadows?

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Hi, In InDesign CS, I have created several white text boxes with black text. I have feathered them and added a drop shadow. When I print, all the text boxes show a square shaded rectangle under each drop shadow text box.

What is causing this and I can I correct it?

All comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[S***@adobeforums.com]

Hi Barb,

Despite what you see on screen, InDesign can't print true transparency, because no print architecture supports it. What it does is create the illusion of it through a clever system of masking called flattening.

Normally flattening works fine, at least to PostScript printers. If you're printing to a non-PS box, however, your mileage may vary. In this case it may be possible to alleviate the problem by adjusting the flattening settings so that more complex elements are rasterized instead of masked. However, you have to set the rasterization resolution pretty high (300 dpi or more) to get the same level of crispness as a vector mask, and rasterizing can greatly increase your print time.