InDesign Drop Shadow Effect

From AAUP-Wiki

It is possible that output of an InDesign file (or the resulting PDF) will print improperly on some devices if the InDesign document has a Drop Shadow effect applied (or other effect that applies rasterization to the document).

Here's what happens:

Let's say you have a content box and select Object > Drop Shadow and apply a Drop Shadow. When printed to our Canon copier or if a PDF is created and printed to our Canon copier, the document looks correct. However, if the indd file or pdf file are printed to one of the business color "hub" printers that IST has provided, then it may appear that the color inside of the content box + drop shadow is somewhat different than the color outside of the content box. This may be more or less noticeable, depending on the specific color machine. When performing a press check you should pay particular attention to this potential issue.

The problem is that InDesign must convert the image to bitmap ("rasterize") to create the Drop Shadow, and when the image is rasterized then the resulting output cannot be managed or controlled as effectively as when a non-rasterized image is sent to the printer.

There's not much you can do to manage this expect to:

1. Talk to your client so that they understand that different printers will provide different printouts.

2. Try making the Drop Shadow effect in Photoshop (as a layered .psd file) and place that in InDesign. This MAY resolve some the problem (since Photoshop by definition is already dealing with a rasterized image).