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Unable to export PDF with transparent background


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This simple example shows a file created in Photo with the highlighted layers
It was exported as a pdf then opened in Chrome where it appears with a white background. Then it was printed to pdf, opened in Photo and the green rectangle added to confirm transparency
So Affinity writes it ok, Chrome respects that. It depends on how you are viewing the pdf as to whether you see the transparent areas

AffinityTrans.png

Microsoft Windows 11 Home, Intel i7-1360P 2.20 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Intel Iris Xe
Affinity Photo - 24/05/20, Affinity Publisher - 06/12/20, KTM Superduke - 27/09/10

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2 hours ago, Agridoce said:

when exported to PDF, the document has white background.

Usually, you'll have a white background under transparency onb PDF, since paper is white.

Idon't think you can see transparent background in a PDF viewer.

 

If you want to check transparency, you just need to open the PDF in AD/AP/APub, set hose apps to "transparent background", and check there's a checkered background where you expect transparency.

You can also place the PDF in another document, and check the transparency puting a colourful rectangle behind.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I need to bump this up because I'm almost positive this is a bug, at least on the Mac version of Designer.

I have a vector logo, I set the document colour background to transparent, but when I export it to PDF, the background is white, loosing its transparency. I have done this hundreds of times for various purposes, but now it's not working. Th first and second screenies show the document transparency setup, the third one shows the corresponding PDF outcome, with white background instead of transparent. 

Designer version 1.9.3 / MacOs 11.5

Screenshot 2021-08-13 at 17.24.30.png

Screenshot 2021-08-13 at 17.24.43.png

Screenshot 2021-08-13 at 17.26.53.png

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I don't think preview shows the checkered background. I did a test with Designer and Illustrator and both PDF's have no background but do not show the grid in Preview or Acrobat DC. I dropped them in Indesign on top of another image and the background is transparent. 

I never have issues when printing white on a transparent material. You can do your own test, make a new designer file, make a box a solid colour and then place the PDF you made on top of that. If you still see a white box and not just your image there is a problem somewhere down the line. I could not replicate in that when placing the file in Indesign or Illustrator it has no background. If you want to upload a test file as well I am sure people could look and possibly help you out if there is indeed some glitch happening here. 

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1 hour ago, wonderings said:

or Acrobat DC

There's a Pro and a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

You can install the free version and as shown in my previous post, use it to display transparency. It's also the best tool to look at and check PDF (few other apps have full PDF code implemented).

It does not prevent from using another application — a lighter and faster one —  for usual reading of PDF, but in a professionnal way, checking files with Adobe Acrobat is recommended, and the free version 's got a lot of option, like displaying transparency.

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  • Staff

Sorry to hear you're still having trouble here @Agridoce!

Can you please provide a copy of the .afdesign file shown in your most recent screenshot, as well as a screenshot showing your PDF export settings (including the More... dialog)?

Many thanks in advance :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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The logo is fine and the background is transparent:

Usual view (white background)

2021-08-17_214907.png.34b4ca6d971d339085ce74e9f874e2da.png

 

Display transparency:

2021-08-17_214922.png.7ebe8d1417ad1f4e465ceaeade2ec4b7.png

Result:

2021-08-17_214926.png.56bad38acf9c7ff806fa269fcddc14c1.png

logotipo.pdf

This PDF was exported with settings for print that disallow transparency (to be more accurate: no objects with less than 100% opacity, void for backgroud — paper — is allowed).

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I have had a similar problem with PNG and TIF files exported from AD showing a dark grey background in Preview, even though the original AD file does show a chequered background. However If I save the exported file to the desktop they re-import it to a new AD document the transparency works fine. So I think the issue is with Preview.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 8/17/2021 at 8:57 PM, Wosven said:

The logo is fine and the background is transparent:

Usual view (white background)

2021-08-17_214907.png.34b4ca6d971d339085ce74e9f874e2da.png

 

Display transparency:

2021-08-17_214922.png.7ebe8d1417ad1f4e465ceaeade2ec4b7.png

Result:

2021-08-17_214926.png.56bad38acf9c7ff806fa269fcddc14c1.png

logotipo.pdf 1.32 MB · 2 downloads

This PDF was exported with settings for print that disallow transparency (to be more accurate: no objects with less than 100% opacity, void for backgroud — paper — is allowed).

Thank you for your trouble, unfortunately the problem remains. Even PDF for print used to allow transparent background, I've tried viewing the PDF  Acrobat Reader but the background is white, not transparent. I have tried all PDF formats with the same result. This might be a bug on Mac version of AD or I'm completely missing something.

Is there another Mac user on the forum that can confirm this?

Thanks

Screenshot 2021-09-16 at 11.24.09.png

Screenshot 2021-09-16 at 11.24.54.png

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  • Staff

@Agridoce, I can confirm that Affinity Designer is working correctly in this regard, the PDF you're producing has a transparent background, simply Acrobat is not displaying the transparency.

Within Acrobat, navigate to Edit > Preferences > Page Display and then make sure that 'Show Transparency Grid' is ticked, as @Wosven suggested. (It may be under Acrobat Reader > Preferences on mac).

This immediately shows the chequered background and displays the PDF as you'd expect. I hope this clears things up :) 

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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You're right, it does show transparent background on Acrobat Reader after activating transparency (thank you for the tip). However, when I open the PDF on AD, it still shows a white background, I have to set transparent background on document setup.

But when I preview the document on the Finder (selecting the document and pressing Space key), the transparency is gone. Previously, it used to show transparency (a grey background instead of checkered) so this might be a MacOS issue. This is annoying because when I send the files to a client that uses Mac, they reply that "the file is all white".

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  • Staff
36 minutes ago, Agridoce said:

However, when I open the PDF on AD, it still shows a white background, I have to set transparent background on document setup.

That's to be expected, Affinity will automatically assume you don't want transparent backgrounds to be active when importing a PDF file so you will need to manually renable this option as you've found :)

38 minutes ago, Agridoce said:

But when I preview the document on the Finder (selecting the document and pressing Space key), the transparency is gone. Previously, it used to show transparency (a grey background instead of checkered) so this might be a MacOS issue. This is annoying because when I send the files to a client that uses Mac, they reply that "the file is all white".

I do believe this to be a MacOS bug, as I've been testing this here and when opening PDF files in Preview you should be able to use the View > Show Document Background option to enable/disable the 'transparency' being displayed - but this has no effect with the exported PDF from Affinity, however other PDF viewers on Mac are working correctly for me, so this appear to be a Preview issue unfortunately!

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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6 hours ago, Agridoce said:

But is also doesn't show transparency in the Finder and it used to, maybe on the next OS update it will come back.

I can't be certain but I do not think I have ever seen Finder show transparency for any filetype. However, I am still using Catalina, not Big Sur so I can't say anything about how it works with that macOS version.

4 hours ago, Wosven said:

Perhaps this is the answer (switch language, since I'm on my phone and it displayed French by default):

That just explains how to change the window background color in Apple's Preview app, the area behind PDF's & images, but not anything within the boundaries of the PDF or image.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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4 minutes ago, R C-R said:

That just explains how to change the window background color in Apple's Preview app, the area behind PDF's & images, but not anything within the boundaries of the PDF or image.

But since the images or PDF are transparent, that'll do the difference if like with Acrobat, the default background is white like the majority of PDF or this one. 

Quote

Aperçu affiche un arrière-plan gris derrière les fichiers PDF et les images. Dans un PDF ou une image , l’arrière-plan s’affiche si vous agrandissez la fenêtre pour la rendre plus grande que le document ; dans une image, vous pouvez aussi voir l’arrière-plan dans les portions transparentes. Vous pouvez modifier la couleur de l’arrière-plan.

=>  you can also see the background in the transparent portions

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20 minutes ago, Wosven said:

=>  you can also see the background in the transparent portions

Note the first part of that says "dans une image." In the English version, that translates to " in an image, you can also see the background through any transparent sections." 

For images it works fine; for PDF's it does not. Elsewhere in the paragraph they mention both PDF's & images; in that part they do not:

Quote

Preview shows a gray background behind PDFs and images. In a PDF or image, you see the background if you expand the window larger than the size of the document; in an image, you can also see the background through any transparent sections. You can change the background color.

I think it is sneaky & misleading.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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On 9/16/2021 at 10:28 PM, R C-R said:

I can't be certain but I do not think I have ever seen Finder show transparency for any filetype. However, I am still using Catalina, not Big Sur so I can't say anything about how it works with that macOS version.

Here's an example of how you see a PNG with transparent background when you select it and press Tab Space bar.

Screenshot 2021-09-17 at 09.24.48.png

Edited by Agridoce
Corrected space bar
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