Eliminate Hidden Content

Hidden or unused elements in artwork can cause serious issues during proofing and printing. Draft layers, overlapping objects, or inactive design components may interfere with text extraction, color analysis, or comparison accuracy.

Best Practices

• Remove draft layers, hidden annotations, and temporary design references before exporting the final PDF.
• Delete unused objects, masks, or hidden text boxes from the design file to reduce file complexity.
• Inspect the artwork visually and layer by layer to identify overlapping or invisible elements that might obscure key content.
• Use your design tool’s “Preflight” to validate that only the intended content is exported.

Why it matters for proofing?

Hidden elements may affect the proofing engine’s ability to read visible content correctly. Overlapping items or stray layers can cause false differences, incorrect extractions, or invisible text mismatches during comparison. Cleaning up hidden content ensures that the proofing results reflect exactly what will be printed or published.