Hi there...
I'm having an issue w/ a product illustration. I am using Illustrator CS. The illustration looks great on screen, but when I print it, I am getting a box showing where my clipping mask is - its a box showing the shape of the mask as if i had put a white box over it at 50% transparency. When the mask is released, I have no problems. I even tried to flatten my layers & Transparency, and have tried every setting in respect to that option with no change - same problem occurs. Please see the image below:
The right image was a scan of the printout so it doesn't look as good as the image on the left...but I think you can get the picture here.
The problem shows up when I add a subtle drop shadow to the small grey/white cable coming out of the red cable jacket. But when I just remove the drop shadow, the clipping mask for that element is still there and it looks & prints just fine. This leads me to assume the problem must be some type of a transparency and/or blending mode issue with this particular element...and only seems to happen when I am using the MULTIPLY blending mode on the drop shadow - which it needs to be or looks funny on Normal Blending Mode. I have also tried getting the same effect w/ a blurred path - masked separately underneath - instead of doing a drop shadow...both have the same look, but both are causing the same problem. This is why I think it has to do w/ the Multiply blending mode. I guess it isn't 100% necessary to have this little drop shadow, but I feel it adds a bit more life to the drawing and makes it pop a bit more. I also think I'll be needing to use this technique for my other product illustrations as well. I hope someone will have some insight into how I can fix this or what I might be doing wrong!! THANKS IN ADVANCE for your help!
Regards,
Valerie
