imported graphic on coloured background - thin white line around the inserted graphic

Shlomo Perets shlomo2 at microtype.com
Sat Feb 7 10:10:48 PST 2009


Ulrike,

You wrote:

>I have a coloured background in my FM document and have added an image
>with the same background colour (to make the inserted image look
>'transparent') by reference. I have no line around the image, just a
>fill with the same RGB code as the background color in the FM document.
>Everything looks fine in FM, the contours of the inserted file are
>invisible. I produce a pdf file, everthing is fine, no contours around
>the inserted image visible. When I print the pdf, there is a fine white
>contour line around the inserted graphic, any suggestions how I can get
>rid of it? I tried to check the object properties, without success.


This problem is related to a bug in the PS output of FrameMaker (all 
versions) on Windows. In the PostScript/PDF output produced by 
FrameMaker/Windows, a solid white rectangle is placed underneath all 
bitmaps. It has the same size as the bitmap, but may be displayed 
occasionally (sometimes for a split second when you zoom in/out, especially 
when the page is busy and the display is slow) or become noticeable when 
printing.

You can easily see the solid white rectangle if you open the PDF in the 
full version of Acrobat and use the Object TouchUp tool to drag items -- as 
you drag the image, you'll see a solid white rectangle below it.

Possible workarounds: explicitly set a thick border for the image (eg a 
3-point border) with the same color as the background, or produce the 
entire background color with the image as a single bitmap.
[ The solid white rectangle may not be placed underneath EPS bitmaps, but 
this varies depending on the FM version and the way the PDF is produced, 
and may not be consistent -- hence it is not a general-purpose workaround ]


Shlomo Perets

MicroType * http://www.microtype.com
FrameMaker training & consulting * FM-to-Acrobat TimeSavers

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