Linewights Appear Darker When Exported To PNG

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
July 10, 2025
7 replies
1063 views

I’m having issues with my Illustrator file. I have the desired line weight appearance in my Adobe workspace, but when I export it as a PNG, it becomes very dark. I’ve tried both RGB and CMYK workspaces, as well as assigning an sRGB profile, but I’m still getting the same result in the PNG export. I’ve attached an image of the desired look and the look I’m currently getting. Any help would be appreciated

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Looks like the CPU preview is giving a better representation of your file at 100%, but that looks indeed fatter than the GPU preview. Which is not surprising since your strokes are too small (smaller than a screen pixel) to get accurately represented on screen.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

So this is a huge file with enormous dimensions? Just how is the lineweight set up?

I

Islam34570941nkrjAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes this file is larger, artboard is 17x11 with stroke weights ranging for 0.15-0.5pt.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Islam34570941nkrj,

Thanks so much for sharing all these details and the screenshots.

It looks like you've already tried adjusting anti-aliasing and different color profiles, which is great. Since the issue persists, could you please confirm your exact Illustrator version and operating system? Also, please let us know whether this happens with other files as well or only with this particular artwork.

If possible, please share the file via a cloud link (such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or WeTransfer) since it's too large to attach directly here. This will help us inspect the artwork structure, line settings, and export behavior more closely.

Once we get that, we can investigate further and guide you better.

Looking forward to your update!

Abhishek

I

Islam34570941nkrjAuthor

Participating Frequently

I’m using Adobe Illustrator 2024 (version 28.1) on Windows 64-bit. The issue occurs in other files as well, not just this one. I’ve attached a smaller file with some of the objects that appear darker than they do in the Illustrator workspace. This should help illustrate the problem while keeping the file size manageable.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Can you share the original Illustrator file for inspection?

I

Islam34570941nkrjAuthor

Participating Frequently

File size is 192 MB, too large to share here. I would be willing to upload it if you have somewhere to send it.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Islam,

In the IMG 1 version the building/road/paths linework is thicker and thereby appears darker, in the Too Dark version it is thinner and thereby appears darker. But there seems to be no difference in colour. So this could be an aliasing matter as Ton said.

Oppositely, in the IMG 1 version both the linework and fill in the greenery are paler in colour, in the Too Dark version it is darker in colour with no difference in line thickness, almost as if those parts have a reduced opacity the IMG 1 version.

Those more or less opposite appearances semm strange.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

What is the anti-aliasing option you have used. For this it should be Art Optimized.