Transparency Issues in X4 PDF Export: Grouped Objects and Master Page Elements Render with White Background

[PeterB.]

Hello,

I’ve encountered another issue with Affinity Publisher when exporting a document as an X4 PDF. I’ve set up a document with a couple of drop shadow effects, but the results are not as expected.

In my layout, there’s a picture frame with a drop shadow effect positioned in the upper-right corner. This frame is grouped multiple times, and in my original document, there are additional elements within these groups (which I’ve left out here for simplicity). However, after exporting as X4, instead of the shadow fading out smoothly, it appears with a white background behind it.

After some troubleshooting, I found that ungrouping the frame completely allows the shadow to export correctly. This leads me to believe the issue might be related to the multiple layers of grouping, although grouping shouldn’t usually affect flattening results in this way.

Additionally, I have another object with a drop shadow effect, but this one is placed on a master page. When I apply this master page to the main document, I encounter the same issue: the shadow doesn’t fade out as it should, showing a white background instead, even though there’s no group applied. If I copy the element directly onto the page (bypassing the master page), the shadow effect exports correctly.

The Publisher document was created in the current beta version, but I was able to reproduce the issue in the regular version as well. Interestingly, these issues do not occur when exporting as a X1a PDF, where the document is fully flattened.

Can anyone else reproduce this? I’ve attached my sample documents and used the standard X4 export preset.

Thanks!

Test Flattening.afpub

[HCl]

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[PeterB.]

@Return Thank you for the suggestion, but I had already discovered that ungrouping or changing blend modes can “fix” the export. However, that doesn’t really solve the underlying issue. In my opinion, this is still a problem with the software, as complex nesting and different blend modes shouldn’t prevent a correct X4 export, especially when X1a works fine. For professional software, handling these types of layered structures should be standard.

[stokerg]

Hi @PeterB.,

Thanks for reporting this.

I've replicated it here and have logged it with the Developers