PDF render error on FX inside objects whe color space is different

[Daniel Gibert]

This is one error on V2.5.3 that has resurfaced as it happened before a long time ago, on V1

If you export a CMYK document onto a RGB PDF, effects on objects that are clipped inside other objects are not rendered and appear as white areas. This didn't happen on 2.5.1 and earlier. The same effect outside the clipping object does not happens and render correctly. If you export to a PDF in the same colour space the result is correct.

I have memories of this error happening a long time ago in V1 and being solved then, so I think it is a regression.

Attached to this comment there are the Publisher document used to test this and the incorrectly exported PDF.

Tested using the default PDF settings and custom one. It is always when the colour space differs from document to pdf.

The issue.afpub export.pdf

[Dan C]

Thanks for your report @Daniel Gibert!

23 hours ago, Daniel Gibert said:

If you export a CMYK document onto a RGB PDF, effects on objects that are clipped inside other objects are not rendered and appear as white areas.

The file you've provided appears to be in the RGB colour space, and when exporting this to either RGB or CMYK PDFs with a different colour profile, I'm not seeing the same issue occur.

I've also converted the Publisher file to be using the CMYK colour space, then exported again to both CMYK & RGB PDFs with a different colour profile and all of the resultant PDF files have the FX rendered as expected - across both Windows and macOS.

Can you please confirm for me, should the Publisher file be using CMYK as your post denotes, or RGB as the file provided is? And which Colour Profile should be used?

What exact PDF export settings are you using? A screenshot of these would help me to investigate further.

Many thanks in advance

[Daniel Gibert]

18 minutes ago, Dan C said:

The file you've provided appears to be in the RGB colour space, and when exporting this to either RGB or CMYK PDFs with a different colour profile, I'm not seeing the same issue occur.

Hi, Dan C

True, my mistake. The file I sent is in RGB (The document where it happens originally was in CMYK). After reading your comment and testing. I see that the issue happens on any document regardless of the colour space, so I must retire my assumption that it was about colour space.

I've been testing more deeply based on your clues. It seems that is a rare case. If I get the FX object and change it using the RGB colour panel, it ceases to fail. And if I change it using the CMYK again, the fail does not return (It is as if there was a colour formulation error) We assign that colour from a custom colour library, and the error has happened always with that same colour, so maybe there is an issue on the library.

Please, let me do some further test and I'll try to catch the steps on video. I know the issue is there because it appeared to us on different documents, but now I'm not sure about the steps to reproduce. I'll remade the illustrations again as I made it at first to force the issue and let you know. I hope to have it by tomorrow. If I find a solution or a cause I'll let you know so it can be useful for others having this issue.

Thanks a lot for your patience.

[Hangman]

Hi @Dan C,

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

The file you've provided appears to be in the RGB colour space, and when exporting this to either RGB or CMYK PDFs with a different colour profile, I'm not seeing the same issue occur.

That's interesting, I tested the file extensively yesterday and saw the same issue as @Daniel Gibert...

Note: While the file itself is RGB the layers with the FX applied are defined using CMYK colour though this appears to make no difference to the exported file...

Regardless of the Colour Space and Colour Profile the issue (for me at least) only happens when exporting using the PDF (print), PDF (press-ready) and PDF/X-4 presets, all other PDF presets export the file correctly though I would expect that to be the case anyway due to the automatic transparency flattening...

Note: With the exception of the PDF (flatten) preset, the unnested version doesn't export transparency correctly either. If you open the exported PDF and switch on background transparency you can see the area of transparency above the 'pinkish' shape is white instead of transparent...

[Daniel Gibert]

2 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Note: Regardless of the PDF preset used, the unnested version doesn't export transparency correctly either. If you open the exported PDF and switch on background transparency you can see the area of transparency above the 'pinkish' shape is white instead of transparent...

Oh, it is very weird. The white area may be because the piece is not just transparent, but in multiply mode, so it need to render as a bitmap image. This is normal on PDF.

I am suspecting more and more that it is an error caused by the colour formulation of the piece and the custom library colour used, because if you change it by a bit, the issue disappear. I'll post my experiments on this by tomorrow.

Thanks for looking at it!

 

[Hangman]

17 minutes ago, Daniel Gibert said:

The white area may be because the piece is not just transparent, but in multiply mode, so it need to render as a bitmap image. This is normal on PDF.

I did consider this though technically there is no background on your file, as in you've not physically added one so from a PDF perspective the background is transparent rather than white...

This is what I see exporting using each of the PDF presets... the only one which is correct is PDF (flatten) where the transparency is shown correctly, PDF/X-1a and certain other PDF formats should similarly flatten the transparency...

[Dan C]

My sincerest apologies for the delayed response here as I've been conducting further tests with your file using different platforms and PDF export options etc.

Initially I had been testing using PDF (for export), which does not display the issue with the nested shadow - however I can see this is incorrect when using the PDF (for print) preset, specifically due to the Allow Advanced Features option - disabling this checkbox should export the file as expected.

However to verify, the behaviour of the lower objects with the shadow over the body is correct with regards to the white matte above the body shape. The FX shadow has to be rasterised when exporting, and this requires a white matte in the area above the body, where the shadow extends.

I've reported this issue to our development team as a bug with Allow Advanced Features, when exporting with your nested layer setup - I hope this helps!

[Daniel Gibert]

3 hours ago, Dan C said:

My sincerest apologies for the delayed response here as I've been conducting further tests with your file using different platforms and PDF export options etc.

Please, do not apologize. It is me the one who should offer apologies, since I promised to test further and come with better step by step ways to reproduce and failed miserably due to workload.

Nice to know about this option and will check that deactivating Allow Advanced Features solve this for the works we have already on production.

As always, cheers and kudos for the team, and to you. I appreciate your work a lot.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, I'm more than happy to help and sincerely appreciate your kind feedback

Hopefully disabling this option should allow you to workaround this issue in the meantime, but should you have any further issues with exporting this file then please don't hesitate to let us know!