Hey Dude, Where's My White!

Hey Dude, Where's My White!

You know those annoying times when your white mysteriously disappears from your prints and PDFs generated from Adobe Illustrator? This happens when the white element is programmed to 'overprint'. You see this a lot if you work with files you receive from a print vendor. Since the print whites on press are actual white inks, they need to have the white element programmed to overprint in the digital mechanic so that a white separation plate is generated.

To easily solve this problem in your Illustrator file, just select the white element then open the 'Attributes' panel and uncheck both the 'Overprint Fill' and 'Overprint Stroke' options. To view on screen before printing or PDFing, select the 'Separations Preview' panel and check the 'Overprint Preview' option. This will display any elements set to overprint in the file. If you see your white elements in this view, they will print correctly. This will also show you how the file will look printed to any of your local printers.