Skip to main content
davidicus
Inspiring
July 21, 2018
Answered

PDF displays with white backgrounds, can't read text

  • July 21, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 11154 views

I have a 75 page PDF exported from Google Sheets. I want to view it in Acrobat Pro DC, but the background appears to be missing throughout, all white, so text is unreadable. Graphics from the Sheets source appear fine. I don't have access to the original Google Sheets document any more. I'm on Windows 10.

The page below looks all white in Acrobat DC before Placing into InDesign. However, it displays fine in Chrome and Firefox. Creative Cloud indicates there is no Acrobat DC update available.

Here's what a page looks like after being Placed into an InDesign document. I've cropped to reveal a dark blue Rectangle Frame I've added to the InDesign Master. I drew a green Frame on this page.

Here's what it looks like in Acrobat Pro DC after exporting from InDesign to PDF.
So, medium blue = Placed from Sheets, dark blue = InDesign Master Frame, green = InDesign page Frame.

I'm pretty desperate to figure out what's going on here. At first I blamed the Sheets PDF, but now it looks like Acrobat DC is displaying things wrong.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer davidicus

good thought--thank you! however, i uninstalled/reinstalled Acrobat and the issue vanished, so i can't test this solution. Very happy it's fixed though

1 reply

Adorobat
Community Manager
Community Manager
July 23, 2018

Hi Davidicus,

As per the issue description mentioned above, background color in pdfs are not displaying correctly, is that correct?

Could you try changing the document color option using the steps given in the following forum thread and check if that works?

PDF Background Appears Grey (on screen and on paper) Acrobat X v10.0.0 (Edit PDF)

Let us know if you need any help.

Shivam

davidicus
davidicusAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
July 23, 2018

good thought--thank you! however, i uninstalled/reinstalled Acrobat and the issue vanished, so i can't test this solution. Very happy it's fixed though