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PNG transparency black when printing compressed PDF


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Hi @thomaso

Thanks for your answer. 

To be honest I did not check the the date of first message (only last one) so I thought this thread was a bit "younger"

Anyway, answering your questions:
- this is the very same printer 
- I would need to check Reader (working from home now so I should have some time later). I do not like Reader on Mac... it is somehow "too heavy" (I do not know how to explain that better :));
- my files are included in pdf (originally it was pdf file which I opened, translated to Polish and made some modifications). When I made them "linked" I could find all photos on the drive but they look as if they were lower quality. But I attached the one which was printed differently from two different machines but same file. Again - not the original photo. I also attached my brochure (file exported using preset: PDF (digital - high quality).

I think that original pdf file was created with InDesign. Unfortunately I did not get these files and had to work with pdfs.

Let me know if I can help somewhere. 

 

HE-Series_Product_Brochure_2020_A4.pdf HE-Series_Product_Brochure_2020_3.tif

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On 4/8/2020 at 3:00 PM, Witek said:

originally it was pdf file which I opened, (...)
I attached the one which was printed differently from two different machines but same file. Again - not the original photo. I also attached my brochure (file exported using preset: PDF (digital - high quality).

I think that original pdf file was created with InDesign.

Your mixture of involved sources (apps and file formats) makes it nearly impossible to judge what part of an issue might be done by Affinity and what by others.

When printing your PDF from Acrobat I get transparent image backgrounds whereas a print from Preview.app shows black backgrounds. So the printing app is at least involved in generating the issue. Personally I avoid to use Preview for prints of such files, also I experienced that Preview ignores the OutputIntent which is set in PDF/X-4 on an export from APub.

Print from Acrobat (left: screen view, right: print result):

1771108224_druckvacrobat.jpg.a209a4ad3a86c281c6728b6fbbb5d427.jpg

The same PDF printed from Preview app prints black image backgrounds:

505427647_druckvpreview.jpg.1288a10f1fc113f0260ec972d5d1d8f2.jpg

When opening your TIF in Acrobat I don't get transparency around the objects but in the corners only (see checkerboard pattern, I assume the image content has been rotated before the TIF was saved). That indicates this TIF's transparency maybe saved different than expected, in particular compared to the view in Preview (below) ...

1657521251_tiftransparencyinacrobat.jpg.ad08db888b54f5c39b2d2b3498e2e2d0.jpg

When I open the same TIF in Preview.app it already shows a black background:

1314577656_tiftransparencyinpreview.jpg.9ae9611bf3ffbc50500ea444f861a4b2.jpg

No I wonder if the file format PNG (compare this thread's title) was involved at any stage in your files. Maybe it was used in the original InDesign document, we don't know?
However, note that PNG is not meant to be used for print but for screen view only. PNG has 3 channels RGB + 1 channel Alpha for transparency, so maybe its 4ths channel gets confused when its involved in a conversion to the 4-channel CMYK color space? Note there are many black background issues with PNG discussed in the web since years and for various apps)

I understand your personal distance to Acrobat Reader. Possibly you can find another PDF viewing app which doesn't have such issues. In this thread are a few alternatives ...:

 

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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Hi @thomaso

Many thanks for your extensive work on that! 
As I wrote you these are not original picture files (I should have them next week) but ones saved from pdf by Publisher. 
I really appreciate your help with that and I will certainly take a look at Preview alternatives. The good thing is that Publisher exports my file to pdf without any problems and no, due to situation we are all facing, I work mostly with pdf and emails. When it's over I will have much better brochures prepared and they will be ready for printing. 

Again - thanks for taking so much time to examine this issue. I know more and I'm pretty sure I know what to do next.
Also, when I have high quality pictures (next week) I will make some changes in the original file (replacing all photos) and will see how it works. But, judging from what you have written above, I do not expect Preview.app to work :)

Have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

Witek

 

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On 4/11/2020 at 1:25 PM, Witek said:

I will certainly take a look at Preview alternatives

"Podofyllin" is no Acrobat alternative (rather 'just' a PDF viewer) but it might be worth to test-print your files in macOS.
This quite small app (18 MB) also allows to flatten a PDF, to export its containing text as txt or rtf, and it enables an inside look to some hidden info/code.

https://eclecticlight.co/delighted-podofyllin/

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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  • 2 months later...

I have exactly the same problem, with the following results, with all PND images placed in my document:
- when I print from Affinity Publisher, result is Ok, with all image backgrounds transparent
- when I save as a pdf file from printing, and I print this pdf file, result is Ok, with all image backgrounds transparent
- when I export to pdf from Publisher, it is Ok on screen, but when printed, images have a black background
- when I export to pdf from Adobe InDesign (with exactly the same PND images as behind), and I print this pdf file, result is Ok, with all image backgrounds transparent

I have a Mac, with the latest versions of MacOS, Affinity Publisher, but the Mac is not the cause, because only one situation have the problem, when exporting to PDF from Affinity Publisher.

Then isn't it any setting on Affinity Publisher when exporting as PDF, or maybe when placing a PND image, to remove this issue?

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I have just been corresponding with the Affinity teem re this problem and for me it seems to fix it if I rasterise the image before exporting to PDF. I did that by right clicking the image in the layers panel and selecting rasterise. You could try it and see if it fixes it for you. It's still a bit of a pain particularly if I have to go through and rasterise multiple images but hopefully there is an easier way.

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I am having the same black background png problem which just started. Displays ok but prints with black background. I created the png in Pixilmator and import to Affinity Publisher. The page is fine, the pdf on screen is fine but the print has the black box

Screen_Shot_2020-06-21_at_1_11.28_PM.png

Screen_Shot_2020-06-21_at_1_10.53_PM.png

Scan_1.jpeg

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  • 4 months later...

Hi, I'm Moss,

I was running into the same issue. I'm using Adobe Illustrator 2021 and Mac OSx. I was able to find a solution. I copied the content of my art board from Adobe Illustrator into an identical Photoshop art board (both CMYK color). Then I saved as a Photoshop PDF while disabling downsampling in the save/export settings. After printing this version the .pngs which previously printed with a black background, now had transparent backgrounds.

So the solution to my variation of the problem seems to be exporting the content as an Photoshop PDF rather than an Illustrator PDF.

Hope this helps.

Edited by Moss
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  • 3 months later...

Hi everyone,

I've had the same issue today - a PDF with a black square behind a picture.  I upgraded (had to, unfortunately) to mac OS Catalina yesterday - until then the file printed just fine!  I managed to print it just now without the black box from my PC, using the same printer.  So it seems a Mac OS problem :-(

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