Export PDF with transparency

[Gatada]

This is driving me nuts. I am sure I managed to do this before, now I cannot figure out how to export a PDF with transparent background.

 

- Document Setup has "Transparent background" enabled.

- I am seeing the document with the classic checked background.

- During export I set "Compatibility" to PDF 1.7 (supposedly only 1.4+ support transparent backgrounds).

 

The files I export have a white background.

 

What am I doing wrong? All help appreciated.

[MikeW]

A pdf has a "white page color" but that doesn't mean that there is a solid white object there.

[StuartRc]

Hi Gatada,

 

There could be several reasons why transparency in the image is not showing. 

 

You are quite correct to indicate that PDF 1.4 up does supports transparency. i have tried it with some of my files and the export is working correctly 

 

However,

 

Have you checked the settings (Preferences in Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro)?

 

CONTROL+K for preferences then activate Transparency Grid Checkbox. This will help you see what is transparent in your file.

 

If you are exporting from Affinity Designer to PDF You can re-import the PDF into Affinity Photo and turn on Background Transparency (Document/Transparent Background) To again display what parts of the image are transparent.

 

Layer effects can effectively 'destroy' parts of an image when converted to PDF if unsupported they are get rasterised by default (toggling this can have weird results!) 

 

Hope this helps..if not I am sure their will be more contributions soon... :)

[Gatada]

Dammit. I think the PDFs had transparent backgrounds, just all my viewers decided to be kind and render a white background.

 

Even Preview did this, toggling View > Show Document Background did nothing.

 

The exported PDF worked in Xcode however, which is the only thing I need.

[StuartRc]

Excellent News ..PDF can be a bit strange sometimes!  :)

[p10n]

Old thread, but I feel its the same issue. There seem to be PDFs where viewers do not agree whether they are transparent or not. I exported a document with transparent background from Affinity Designer to PDF, (1.7), and all looked well some time ago. Now I exported again (after a few changes in the document), and the resulting PDF shows as follows:

• OSX Preview shows white background (despite setting is "show the background" (grid))
• Importing it in PowerPoint -> appears transparent
• Opening the PDF with Affinity Designer: white background (can switch it to transparent again)

Another PDF (same artboard from the same document, other PDF settings) shows white background in all 3 situations, despite the export some time ago has been transparent.

Any ideas?

ToolLayout-plain_sometimesTransparent.pdf

ToolLayout-plain-CMYK-neverTransparent.pdf

[njyo]

On 10/17/2018 at 1:29 AM, p10n said:

Old thread, but I feel its the same issue. There seem to be PDFs where viewers do not agree whether they are transparent or not. I exported a document with transparent background from Affinity Designer to PDF, (1.7), and all looked well some time ago. Now I exported again (after a few changes in the document), and the resulting PDF shows as follows:

• OSX Preview shows white background (despite setting is "show the background" (grid))
• Importing it in PowerPoint -> appears transparent
• Opening the PDF with Affinity Designer: white background (can switch it to transparent again)

Another PDF (same artboard from the same document, other PDF settings) shows white background in all 3 situations, despite the export some time ago has been transparent.

Any ideas?

ToolLayout-plain_sometimesTransparent.pdf

ToolLayout-plain-CMYK-neverTransparent.pdf

I have EXACTLY the same problem.

I know it has worked in the past, but now I don't seem to be able to export PDFs with transparent background again with Affinity Designer 2.0.0.

 

Thanks,
Wolf

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, njyo said:

I have EXACTLY the same problem.

I know it has worked in the past, but now I don't seem to be able to export PDFs with transparent background again with Affinity Designer 2.0.0.

You just set up your document with Transparent Background specified when you create it, or via Document Setup (Color tab) after it's created.

After that, it's a question of whether the PDF viewer you're using supports transparency, and if so whether it's an option you need to enable. For example, I'll attach a PDF with transparency that I created in Designer 2. If I open it in Acrobat Viewer the page background is white, not transparent. But that's because, by default, Acrobat Reder doesn't show transparency. In Acrobat Reader, you can try Edit > Preferences, then Page Display, then Show Transparency Grid:

 

pdf-with-transparency.pdf

[arkinien]

On 3/8/2023 at 7:32 AM, walt.farrell said:

I'll attach a PDF with transparency that I created in Designer 2.

Sorry to say, but it's NOT transparent, at least, not universally.

The issue is that the transparent background have to be compatible with Industry standard applications, such as Adobe Indesign. For example, a logo project MUST be usable by others professionals not using Affinity.

Exporting artboards to EPS works just fine, but confuses most clients who cannot preview those files and often end up deleting them. In that regard, PDF files are better. Now just to be clear, PDF does support transparent background while created with other application, sot it's a not a format limitation.

As previously mentioned in this post, this worked in the past, but that seems to be gone now... and that is quite infuriating!