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Question

Strokes not rendering correctly from InDesign to Acrobat PDF

Forum|Forum|7 hours ago
August 12, 2026
7 replies
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I am attempting to depict flashing railway signal lights on paper and in a PDF. I’m using a multi-pointed star that I created in Illustrator, copy-pasted into InDesign and it looks great on screen. But when I export to PDF and then print that PDF on paper, anything on a black background just doesn’t show up.

This is how it looks in InDesign at 200% magnification.

Same 200% from Acrobat and appears the same on paper:

If I zoom in to 800% on the PDF it’s marginally better but I need it to look correct at 100%, not 800%+.

I’ve widened the spikes so they’re more rounded to get more area but it’s absolutely not the effect I want.

Any suggestions? This has been vexing me for weeks now.

Community Expert

Community Expert

Another vote to check the overprint settings. In InDesign turn on overprint preview for a quick look at it.

PeterD-NJAuthor

Inspiring

OK, that’s a setting I’m unfamiliar with. Where do I find it, and how should I set it?

Community Expert

Community Expert

In Illustrator:

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Community Expert

What happens if you PLACE, not copy into InDesign?

Are the strokes set to overprint or transparent?

Can you upload a file with (just) the lights?

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Community Expert

Community Expert

Are you sure those spikes are not set to overprint? Also check ‘overprint preview’ status in Acrobat.