CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • November 15, 2023 at 7:39 am #14397223
    Austin

    Participant

    Hello everyone,

    I’m currently trying to export some print files to PDF in indesign and having some big issues. I have a gradient background in the file and when I export it it displays fine in Acrobat, but if opened in Illustrator (or whatever software my printer is using) it has a very low opacity and the gradient has been removed completely.

    I’ve tried researching and problem solving and can’t come up with any option other than switching format to an EPS, but I feel that can’t be the only option out there.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. Link to screenshot of issues below:

    https://brandfolder.com/s/43r9s439s36rwmnf38b4c

    thanks,
    Austin

  • November 15, 2023 at 7:57 am #14397224
    Nick B

    Participant

    Hi Austin

    What type of PDF are you exporting to? (It will say in the Export dialog box.)

    Nick

  • November 15, 2023 at 8:03 am #14397225
    Austin

    Participant

    Hi Nick,

    Honestly I’ve tried so many at this point. Original output was with the standard set to none an compatibility to Acrobat 5.

    I’ve tried higher versions of Acrobat and I’ve tried x-4, x-3 and x-1 standards. I have layers turned off as well, and I’ve set the transparency flattener to high quality.

    I don’t know if I’m missing something, doing something naively wrong or what. My printer doesn’t seem to be much help with presets either.

  • November 15, 2023 at 8:11 am #14397226
    Mike Rankin

    Keymaster

    Are you using spot color swatches in the gradient? They can sometimes cause unexpected appearance changes when you view the file in different apps. If there are spot colors in the gradient (and if it’s an option for you), try converting them to process colors and output a new PDF.

    • November 15, 2023 at 8:24 am #14397228
      Austin

      Participant

      Hello,

      No I am not using spot colors in the gradient. I also just did a color search in the file to make sure there were no spot colors mistakenly being used and there are not.

  • November 15, 2023 at 8:19 am #14397227
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    InDesign’s gradient’s usually work great. But another option would be to go old school and create the gradient in Photoshop, then import it as a PSD into InDesign.

    • November 15, 2023 at 8:59 am #14397233
      Austin

      Participant

      This worked, thank you for the suggestion.

      This gradient is background element we use for a lot of things across a lot of different shapes and sizes, so hopefully I can get this ironed out and not have to use linked files for it all.

      I’ve also worked with a different printer that seemingly had no issue printing the gradient

  • November 15, 2023 at 8:26 am #14397230
    Austin

    Participant

    Another confusing piece to the puzzle:

    Opening the pdf in Illustrator causes the transparency issues (gradient displays at 25% opacity, gradient is removed and is one solid color, when turning to 100% transparency it has a feathered edge all around).

    But PLACING the file in an already opening artboard brings it in with 0 issues.

    I am at such a loss *sigh*

  • November 15, 2023 at 9:16 am #14397234
    Austin

    Participant

    Does it make sense to anybody that CMYK swatches would be causing this issue?

    I have another file that uses this and is not posing issues. I’ve copy/pasted the object into my current working file and it exported fine (with RGB swatches used for the gradient as the otehr file was digital) when i converted it to CMYK swatches it gave issues again.

• Author
  Posts