Overprint settings

• Last updated on August 27, 2024
• •
• 1 minute to read

When rendering PDF files containing elements that overlap each other, normal behavior for such elements is to knock-out overlaying layers from underlying ones, so that elements are not layered one on top of the other when printing. It guarantees that the colors of these layers don't mix. Users typically don't notice that.

However, under certain circumstances, such behavior is not desired. Usually, it happens when an element is a cut line or a special spot color that should always be printed on top of a color area. To change the behavior, it is possible to set the so-called overprint mode, which means that no knockout is applied when this element is layered on top of other items.

Common options

To set up overprinting in the Template Editor, click an item, click the Design tab, and then expand the Overprint section. For example, for images, you can change the following options.

To enable overprinting for this element, turn on the Overprint fill option. Otherwise, the knockout mode will be used. You may only overprint a stroke with Overprint stroke.

Note

Visually, you won't see the effect of the overprint option in the Template Editor. To verify the result, you need to open the rendered PDF file in Adobe Illustrator and check whether overprint is enabled for an appropriate element.

Overprinting text

Text elements also support the Overprint fill and Overprint stroke options, however, it also supports an additional option called Overprint text. The difference is that the Overprint text is applied to the text glyphs, while Overprint fill and Overprint stroke options are applied to the text frame only (see Fill and border properties).

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Now, let's go further and learn how you can design text in the Template Editor.