286: Thou shall ensure that all text in black is set to overprint background colors

Commentary When I am designing books they are often to be co-editioned (translated into foreign-language editions) so the English text is run as a special black, which overprints the remaining elements on the page. That way this plate can simply be removed and a German or French edition can be overprinted in its place. However, even if your work isn’t going to be translated it is still important that all black text sitting on a colored background should overprint. If you don’t overprint the black text, it will “knock out” of the background (i.e., there will be a reversal in the color for the black text to sit into). This can cause registration issues, especially if the text elements are small in size, say for folios, captions, and even body text. To make the text overprint in InDesign, select from the palette menu: Windows > Attributes. Highlight the text and click the check “Overprint Fill.” You can preview the e....PD