Publisher — gradient gone on PDF export

[Dom159]

Hi,

I have used Adobe Indesign for many years as an amateur, and am now making the switch to Publisher (I used the beta since its release).

I have a project which makes a lot of use of empty boxes with a gradient fill, white to transparent with the starting opacity of the white at about 80%.  When I export to pdf, the gradient is no longer there; the whole box is filled with solid white at 80% opacity.  I can make it export correctly by changing the export settings to rasterise unsupported elements, but this causes other elements to be rasterised which I do not want be rasterised.

Can gradients really be an unsupported element in Publisher?

Thanks so much for your help.

[Dom159]

Okay, there was something wrong with the pdf export preset that I created.  When I recreated it using exactly the same settings, it exported fine, but when I went back and used the original preset, the same problem with the gradient occurred.  I can't see any different between the settings on the two presets, but something must be wrong with the first one.  Anyway, it seems to be working fine now with the updated export preset.

[Pšenda]

More button, Rasterize Nothing?

Nothing—no elements within the design are rasterised on export, therefore unsupported elements are not included in the exported file.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/ExportPersona/exportPersona.html

[Dom159]

Thanks for the reply.  I understand that.  I was just surprised that a gradient fill would be an "unsupported element". When I exported with "rasterize nothing", the gradient was lost.  Only by rasterizing could I get the gradient to remain.

I think the problem is solved now anyhow.  There must have been some corruption in the export preset I created, because when I created a second preset with identical settings, the gradient exported correctly without the need to rasterize anything.

[thomaso]

On 6/28/2019 at 12:05 PM, Dom159 said:

gradient fill, white to transparent with the starting opacity of the white at about 80%.

(...)

I was just surprised that a gradient fill would be an "unsupported element".

The point is your "transparency" as a gradient "color", because you don't want it to be a fill or color actually.
A color always has values of 0 or above, and on screen it always results in a pixel between white and black – whereas transparency is not in the color spectrum.
Therefore you need to use a PDF version that supports transparency (v1.4 or higher) – or else you need to flatten/rasterize, to make the color underneath get charged with one above.

[Dom159]

Thomaso, thank you for your explanation, which was helpful.  I was using PDF version 1.7, so that should not have been a problem.

[thomaso]

Weird. Would you mind to upload that .afpub?

[Dom159]

I would not mind, but it seems now that it would not be helpful, as the problem is no longer happening.  As I said, when I recreated the export preset, the problem ceased, and it functioned correctly.  I deleted the defective preset as soon as I discovered that it was the problem.  So I can no longer recreate the scenario in which the gradient failed to render.  Thanks though for your willingness to help.  I can only imagine that the previous export preset I was using must have been corrupted somehow.

Edited June 30, 2019 by Dom159
typo

[Gerhard Trimpin]

The same happend to my Document, but i found the error:

I draw a line with an arrow at the end, changed to designer persona and expended the stroke, combinde the 2 Elemant to one form. If i change back to publisher persona and fill in a gradiant, it will look ok, but pdf export shows a plain coloured element. (see PDF wrong)

But if i fill in the gradient while i'm still in desighner persona and do a pdf export, the gradiant is ok in the pdf document. (see PDF ok)

This is now on 1.10.4 of publisher, but the error is still there.

Hope this will help,
gtrimpin

Edited December 8, 2021 by Gerhard Trimpin

[wsupaul]

Hi,

I'm having the same PDF issue with a gradient box exported from Publisher. Please let me know what settings to change to preserve my gradient fill.

The pic on the left is with the lost gradient and on the right what it looks like while still in Publisher. 

thanks,

Paul 

 

 

[Hangman]

Hi @wsupaul and welcome to the forums...

Are you able to upload your Affinity file so we can take a look at what might be causing the problem. Which version of PDF are you trying to export your file to?

[Gerhard Trimpin]

I still have the old file, but the arrow has been corrected by now. But i put the two versions of the PDF into the ZIP.

I use Publisher 1.10.6 of version 1 and can not reproduce this result anylonger. Same in version 2. For my understanding: the behavier no longer exists. I hope, the PDF files will help you to understand, what has been the problem. May this will help with the new problem as well.

Archiv.zip

Edited March 14, 2023 by Gerhard Trimpin

[thomaso]

On 3/14/2023 at 1:35 AM, wsupaul said:

I'm having the same PDF issue with a gradient box exported from Publisher. Please let me know what settings to change to preserve my gradient fill.

Could be a transparency gradient on a dark blue rectangle that got exported with a PDF version which does not support transparency respectively this gradient feature.  – What export setting did you use / what do you get if you choose "for print"?