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Strokes not rendering correctly from InDesign to Acrobat PDF

Forum|Forum|28 days ago
August 12, 2026
45 replies
177 views

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.

Correct answer leo.r

@PeterD-NJ In addition, I think that these elements are simply too tiny. Plus the spikes themselves have a significant amount of black.

They look alright when you enlarge them significantly.

If you view them at 100%, a lot of the tiny details simply become indistinguishable to the human eye.

If, for example, you remove all black from the spikes, they become slightly better visible at 100% but still, those elements are simply too small.

It reminds me of a similar issue with app icon design. Some developers invest a great deal of effort designing wonderful icons with great attention to all kinds of small details. Which look spectacular if you view them at 512x512 pixels. In real life, users rarely view the icons at larger than 32 pixels so all these details remain totally invisible.

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PeterD-NJAuthor

Inspiring

OK, this is a one-page .indd native file with some of the vector artwork from my main document. I have tried exporting it, alone, to PDF with the same results. Within InDesign it looks great. In PDF and on paper, it’s bad.

Flashing Light depiction problem.indd

leo.r

Community Expert

Unless I’m missing something, I don’t see any problems in the PDF/X-4 I created from your file (attached). Or are there problems I’m missing?

Flashing Light depiction problem.pdf

graphics_4075

Inspiring

I am only able to recreate the stroke issues OP describes when printing the unaltered document/PDF. I had the same results when printing directly from InDesign and from multiple versions of exported PDFs. The shapes possibly display correctly because my Acrobat resolution is set to 300 ppi. but when printing they display darkened.

Cheers

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Can you upload the original Illustrator file and the InDesign file? Make a copy of the file(s) as it doesn’t need any other content.

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

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PeterD-NJAuthor

Inspiring

I didn’t save the graphic in Illustrator after I created it. But I have subsequently realized that I could re-create it in InDesign just as easily.

The InDesign file is over 600 Mb and 240 pages long; my life’s work, so no, I’m not uploading that for a 4-page spread and a couple of dozen vector illustrations <grin>. I could copy/paste the problem illustrations into a new InDesign file and upload that.

leo.r

Community Expert

I could copy/paste the problem illustrations into a new InDesign file and upload that.

Yes.

BobLevine

Community Expert

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

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PeterD-NJAuthor

Inspiring

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

leo.r

Community Expert

In Illustrator:

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

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)

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PeterD-NJAuthor

Inspiring

I don’t know how to do that (upload just the lights). This is a 6-page section.

How should overprint settings be set? I’d never heard of them before today. They were all unchecked in InDesign. I checked them and no difference. It was also asking about blacks, natural or forced, tried both ways and no difference (should black not be 100% black?).

leo.r

Community Expert

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

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