My document is always exporting with transparent background when I export as PDF

[drempel]

I've got a few documents, and all of them are exporting PDF's as transparent even though I have "transparent background" in Document Setup->Color ticked to off.

If I tick it on, I see transparent in the Affinity View of the document, but if I tick it to off I get a white background in Affinity, but when I export to PDF the previews show transparent regions, which is messing up other programs (like Drive Thru RPG's Generate Quick Preview).

I can work around this by putting White Rectangles in my Master Pages but then I have to fiddle with image I have below the master layers (basically move them into the Master Page layer for that page which causes other issues, they basically become locked) and seems to cause performance issues with PDF readers (at least microsoft edge).

I've tried everything I can think of, is there really no way to export a PDF that doesn't have a transparent background?

[Hangman]

Hi @drempel and welcome to the forums,

PDFs don't support background colour. You can add a shape as a background in your document but your exported PDF will still appear as though it's on a white background when viewed in PDF Readers which are simulating a white paper background. 

If you require a colour background for your PDF you'd add a rectangle and apply the appropriate colour, it's the same if you need a white background since PDFs don't have a specific feature for backgrounds.

You would logically add a white background to your Master Page (if required) and then position everything on the page above your Master Page elements if they're not part of the Master Page.

This is the equivalent of enabling backgrounds in Adobe software which adds a shape behind the document when you enable a background.

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Hangman said:

PDFs don't support background colour. You can add a shape as a background in your document but your exported PDF will still appear as though it's on a white background when viewed in PDF Readers which are simulating a white paper background. 

As @drempel seems to want White, but is getting Transparent, it sounds like their PDF Reader is set to not simulate the paper color. Perhaps that is the issue?

[Hangman]

21 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

As @drempel seems to want White, but is getting Transparent, it sounds like their PDF Reader is set to not simulate the paper color. Perhaps that is the issue?

I would assume Drive Thru RPG's Generate Quick Preview is simply displaying the PDF correctly, much as Affinity's Export Window, does i.e., with a transparent background. To achieve a white background @drempel will still need to physically add one to their Publisher file...

[drempel]

ok.  So that brings me to my other problem then.  As I stated in my earlier message, when I add a white rectangle to my masters, that will occlude any of the images on pages I've put behind my master layers (I do this for the fade in, for some images it looked nicer that they were behind that blue bottom gradient rather than cutting into them).

I can then move those images INTO the master layer for that one page, but as soon as I do so, I can't change it if I need too.  It becomes locked (I assume, that while it's letting me edit that instance of the master layer by inserting an image, it's not recognizing that it's unique to that page when deciding whether I can move it or reorder its position in the layer tree).  And if I need to make a change, I have to do the ugly workaround of duplicate the image and then clear the master for that page and add it again.  Make my edits to the image, and then put it back into the master layer.

Would be nice if Affinity remembered that the layer was unique to this page and allowed edits.

I'm attaching a couple more images here to illustrate the layer setup I'm talking about.

Also, why doesn't affinity add that rectangle behind everything on export if there's no transparent background set on the document?  That seems like the most logical solution to get feature parity with a WYSIWYG piece of publishing software and PDF exports.

Edited November 7, 2023 by drempel

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, drempel said:

but as soon as I do so, I can't change it if I need too.  

You can use Edit Detached and then you should be able to make the change.

[Hangman]

Hi @drempel,

It will be possible to achieve what you want in a slightly different way but it's a little difficult to visualise how the page looks from just the layers panel. Are you able to upload a sample page that includes the fade-in effect prior to adding a white background to the Master Page or if not at least a screenshot showing how the page looks. That way we'll be able to suggest an approach that should work for you...

 

[drempel]

On 11/7/2023 at 5:51 AM, walt.farrell said:

You can use Edit Detached and then you should be able to make the change.

Ah cool.  Still learning this software.  Edit detached helps.  Thanks!