Opacity bug?

[norbinw]

Hey guys. If I set the opacity of the group to 75%, I will get a grey box in the final exported PDF (inside Designer, you can't see it).. The box goes away if I set the opacity of the 2 objects in the group to 75% (the group folder back to 100%), individually. Why???  I change the group opacity to not select each and every object in the group individually..

Opacity.afdesign

[NotMyFault]

Changing opacity on group or individual layer by design leads to different results, see example below. 

 

Untitled.afdesign

[norbinw]

Ok, but why do I get the grey square after exporting? It's not showing up in designer. You can see it in the 2nd screenshot, a faint grey square (around the rhomb in the middle). Lucky I printed only a test, because in print it's even more exaggerated.

[markw]

@norbinw I just tried your problem file and at first I couldn’t seem to be able to reproduce your problem in ether the current retail or beta versions.
Then I tried changing PDF export presets and that was it. There dose seem to be a problem with some PDF presets.
The good news though if you are printing the file is that both Print and Press Ready presets export OK, but I haven’t tried the other PDF/X presets yet.

[norbinw]

These are my export settings. But the Box goes away if opacity is set INDIVIDUALLY instead of on the group. with same preset.

[norbinw]

I tend to stay away from advanced features and set rasterize unsupported, as they mess up files. Some print companies aren't able to print files with advanced features on.

But like I said, changing opacity on group gives faint square around the objects, and opacity on individual items inside the group export ok. With SAME preset. 

[markw]

Thanks for posting your settings.
Using your settings, I still find I can export your file without issue.
If I have no preset or choose for example the 'PDF (for export)' preset then I too get that grey square.
So there is a bug here but why you are seeing it and I don’t with the same settings is a bit odd.
I would suggest deleting your preset ‘Etichete’ and creating a new one just in case it is in some way corrupted.
On a side note, not sure you need Hyperlinks or Bookmarks enabled when printing!

[norbinw]

Tried another preset, and same thing. The preset is not the issue, as the problem goes away if I change to opacity of the group to 100% and the objects inside lower to 80%. Then it exports OK. So the preset can't be the fault.

Also if you open the exported file in Acrobat, it's not visible, but when I preview it with macOS preview, I can clearly see it. And in print, it shows up. So I trust the mac preview function more.

[norbinw]

IF i leave advanced features on, export with same preset, the problem goes away. But that will raise issues with some (if not all) print companies. But it't the first time that I see this happening to me.

It's weird that if I play with the opacity of the individual items in the group, it works with same preset, advanced features off.. But if i touch the group opacity, grey transparent square appears....

[markw]

So after more prodding around, like you I have narrowed it down to the ‘Allow Advanced Features’ checkbox.
AAF selected, I have no problems.
AAF un-selected, and that grey box shows up!
Personally I have never had an issue when it comes to printing with this option selected.
But it has to be said that not all print companies are created equal and this may well be a significant issue for your printer.

I agree, there is a bug/problem here when the Group’s opacity is set to something less than 100% while it’s content is still at 100% opacity.
And it should be reported as such.

[Hangman]

@norbinw I don't believe the grey box you are seeing has anything to do with setting the opacity of the group to 75% vs the opacity of the two objects inside the group. I think the issue is that your Black Marble background is an Adobe RGB file sitting in a CMYK document so when exporting the file you need to check the Convert Image Colour Spaces checkbox so all elements in the document are using the same colour profile. This for me at least removes the grey box on export regardless of whether Allow advanced features is checked or not.

The advantage of using the Allow advanced features option in the PDF settings dialogue is that where possible it will maintain Vector elements as vector elements when exported to PDF rather than rasterising them (assuming that is what you are looking for).

Currently because of the way you've created the Nails and Tails text, using Shadow and Outline fx, this text is rasterised on export regardless of whether you have Allow advanced features checked or not, this is because by default fx are rasterised.

I'd personally be inclined to create the Nails and Tails text in the same way you've created the Cupio and Are text adding a standard stroke and a manual drop shadow (as per the attached file), that way all the text remains as Vectors on export to PDF and checking Convert Image Colour Spaces then means all elements are using the same colour profile resulting in no grey box.

Having said that, I have noticed some oddites though...

1. When applying a blend mode to a graphic which uses a standard Stroke, said graphic is rasterised on PDF export.
2. When applying transparency to a Group (with Passthrough) rather than the individual items within the Group, this also rasterises the Group items on PDF export.
3. Disabling Downsampling and Allow JPEG Compression reduces the file size of the exported PDf by about 6.3Mb!

I have a feeling the first two may be known bugs but I'll take a look in the forum to check and if they've not already been reported I'll file a bug report.

Nails and Tails.afdesign

Nails and Tails AAF.pdf

Nails and Tails DAAF.pdf

[norbinw]

Wow, Yes, converting colors did export it fine, with my recipe. Will overwrite my profiles with that option enabled. For some reason I thought Designer does that, as it converts images when placing inside the document.

Also disabling Downsampling and Comp, saved me 3.5Mb, weird.. One would think it's the other way around.

[Hangman]

14 minutes ago, norbinw said:

For some reason I thought Designer does that, as it converts images when placing inside the document.

Assuming you have Convert opened files to working space checked under the Colour Preferences, though having said that, even with it checked it doesn't appear to convert your background, not sure why it's not doing so?

[markw]

I see there have been some more very interesting developments here!

Though I still wonder why leaving AAF or Convert Image Colour Spaces switched Off, should cause Designer to render in the final output what is essentially, to all intents and purposes, the bounding box of a Group? Something that should always be, invisible.

[Hangman]

Although not quite the same issue, it is I believe related or at least a similar 'bug' to this thread...