Option
Last updated on
Oct 25, 2026
Review flattener preset parameters and highlight options for managing transparent artwork output.
Consult this reference when configuring flattener presets for print output, when previewing which areas of your artwork will be affected by flattening, or when troubleshooting unexpected results in printed or exported files containing transparency.
These options appear in the Flattener Preview panel, the Print dialog box (Advanced section), and when creating or editing transparency flattener presets.
Highlight preview options
Preview options help you identify which areas of your artwork will be affected by flattening. Select an option from the Highlight menu in the Flattener Preview panel to color-code different types of affected content.
Note
The Flattener Preview is not intended for precise previewing of spot colors, overprints, and blending modes. Use Overprint Preview mode for those purposes.
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What it highlights |
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None (Color Preview) |
Disables highlighting to show normal artwork preview. |
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Rasterized Complex Regions |
Areas that will be rasterized for performance reasons, as determined by the Raster/Vector balance slider. The boundary of highlighted areas has a higher probability of producing stitching problems depending on print-driver settings and rasterization resolution. |
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Transparent Objects |
Objects that are sources of transparency, including objects with partial opacity, images with alpha channels, objects with blending modes, and objects with opacity masks. Styles and effects may contain transparency. Overprinted objects may be treated as transparency sources if involved in transparency or if the overprint needs flattening. |
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All Affected Objects |
All objects involved in transparency, including transparent objects and objects overlapped by transparent objects. The flattening process affects these objects by expanding strokes or patterns and potentially rasterizing portions. |
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Affected Linked EPS Files |
All linked EPS files affected by transparency. |
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Expanded Patterns |
All patterns that will be expanded if involved in transparency. |
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Outlined Strokes |
All strokes that will be outlined if involved in transparency or because Convert All Strokes To Outlines is selected. |
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Outlined Text |
All text that will be outlined if involved in transparency or because Convert All Text To Outlines is selected. Outlined strokes and text may appear slightly different from native ones in final output, especially very thin strokes and very small text. The Flattener Preview doesn't highlight this altered appearance. |
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All Rasterized Regions |
Objects and intersections of objects that will be rasterized because there is no other way to represent them in PostScript or because they exceed the complexity threshold specified by the Raster/Vector balance slider. For example, intersections of two transparent gradients will always be rasterized, even if Raster/Vector balance is set to 100. This option also shows raster graphics (such as Photoshop files) involved in transparency and raster effects such as drop shadows and feathers. This option takes longer to process than others. |
Options not available in Illustrator
The following highlight options appear in InDesign or Acrobat but are not available in Adobe Illustrator:
- Affected Graphics (InDesign only): Highlights all placed content affected by transparency or transparency effects.
- Raster-Fill Text And Strokes (InDesign only): Highlights text and strokes with rasterized fills resulting from flattening.
Transparency Flattener Preset options
These parameters control how transparent artwork is divided into vector and rasterized areas. Configure them when creating or editing flattener presets through Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets, or access them directly in the Print dialog box by selecting Custom from the Preset menu.
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Parameter |
Function |
Guidelines |
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Name/Preset |
Specifies the preset name. Type a name in the Name text box or accept the default. You can enter an existing preset name to edit that preset, but you can't edit the default presets (High Resolution, Medium Resolution, Low Resolution). |
Use descriptive names that indicate the preset's intended use, such as "Press Output" or "Desktop Proof". |
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Raster/Vector balance |
Specifies how much vector information to preserve versus how much to rasterize. Higher settings (toward 100) preserve more vector objects; lower settings rasterize more vector objects. Intermediate settings preserve simple areas in vector form and rasterize complex ones. Set to the lowest value to rasterize all artwork. |
The amount of rasterization depends on page complexity and types of overlapping objects. Balance quality needs against file size and printing speed. |
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Line Art And Text Resolution |
Rasterizes all objects—including images, vector artwork, text, and gradients—to the specified resolution, from 72 to 9600 pixels per inch (ppi). This resolution affects the precision of intersections when flattened. |
Set to 600–1200 ppi for high-quality rasterization, especially for serif or small point-sized type. Higher values increase file size and processing time. |
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Gradient And Mesh Resolution |
Specifies the resolution for gradients and mesh objects rasterized during flattening, from 72 to 2400 ppi. This resolution affects the precision of intersections when flattened. |
Set between 150 and 300 ppi. The quality of gradients, drop shadows, and feathers doesn't improve with higher resolutions, but printing time and file size increase. |
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Convert All Text To Outlines |
Converts all type objects (point type, area type, and path type) to outlines and discards all type glyph information on pages containing transparency. Ensures text width stays consistent during flattening. |
Enabling this option causes small fonts to appear slightly thicker when viewed in Acrobat or printed on low-resolution desktop printers. It doesn't affect quality on high-resolution printers or imagesetters. |
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Convert All Strokes To Outlines |
Converts all strokes to simple filled paths on pages containing transparency. Ensures stroke width stays consistent during flattening. |
Enabling this option causes thin strokes to appear slightly thicker and may degrade flattening performance. |
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Clip Complex Regions |
Ensures boundaries between vector artwork and rasterized artwork fall along object paths. Reduces stitching artifacts that result when part of an object is rasterized while another part remains in vector form. |
Selecting this option may create paths too complex for some printers to handle. Some print drivers process raster and vector art differently, sometimes resulting in color stitching. Minimize stitching problems by disabling print-driver specific color-management settings. |
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Preserve Alpha Transparency |
Preserves the overall opacity of flattened objects. With this option, blending modes and overprints are lost, but their appearance is retained within the processed artwork along with the level of alpha transparency. |
Useful when exporting to SWF or SVG, since both formats support alpha transparency. This option appears only in the Flatten Transparency dialog box (Object > Flatten Transparency). |
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Preserve Spot Colors And Overprints |
Generally preserves spot colors and preserves overprinting for objects not involved in transparency. Select when printing separations if the document contains spot colors and overprinted objects. Deselect when saving files for use in page-layout applications. |
With this option selected, overprinted areas that interact with transparency are flattened while overprinting in other areas is preserved. Results are unpredictable when the file is output from a page-layout application. This option appears only in the Flatten Transparency dialog box. |
Options not available in Illustrator
Preserve Overprint (Acrobat only): Blends the color of transparent artwork with the background color to create an overprint effect. This parameter is not available in Adobe Illustrator.
Default flattener presets
Adobe Illustrator includes three default flattener presets designed to match quality and speed requirements for common output scenarios:
- High Resolution: For final press output and high-quality proofs, such as separations-based color proofs
- Medium Resolution: For desktop proofs and print-on-demand documents printed on PostScript color printers
- Low Resolution: For quick proofs printed on black-and-white desktop printers and documents published on the web or exported to SVG
These default presets cannot be edited but can serve as starting points for custom presets.
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