Transparency turns grey from powerpoint to pdf

Report · Nov 14, 2018

I use PowerPoint on a MacBook to create flyers. I then save them as pdf's in order to share them so that they won't be editable and so that the fonts that I have downloaded on my machine appear correctly on others'. This also happens when I use MS Word.

I usually use an image as a background and set a level of transparency so that it doesn't use too much ink or take too much attention from the text and other images. I also add "glow" with different levels of transparency so that the text and images pop against the background.

Since I've completed some updates, anything with any degree of a transparency setting turns grey in the pdf export. I'm attaching screen shots of when it has worked and when it hasn't.

I'm running Mac Mojave 10.14.1 and Microsoft 16.19.

Thank you so much in advance if you're able to help.

Report · Dec 12, 2018

Hi kellys,

As per the issue description mentioned above, you are facing issue when converting powerpoint file to pdf, is that correct?

Could you let us know the option you are using to export pdf? File > save as or File > export? If yes, then that option doesn't use acrobat's pdf engine to produce pdf. You may try contacting apple and see what they have to suggest.

Let us know if that is not the case.

Shivam

Report · Jan 31, 2019

I'm having the same problem. I even tried creating the PDF from Acrobat by using Create PDF from File and choosing the PPT, with the same result as doing Save As or Export from within PPT.

However, in Acrobat when I chose to Create PDF from File and used the online conversion, it produced a PDF with the correct transparencies respected.

So, it seems there may be something with the PDF engine and Mojave that's causing a problem.

Thanks,

Scott

Report · Mar 26, 2019

Issue keeps occurring for me. Wether I print to PDF, save as PDF or whatever I try. Work around is to upload the powerpoint into Google drive, and from there open it as Google slides. Then downloading as PDF correctly saves the slides with transparencies. Let's hope Google slides soon adds the editing and formatting features that are currently still missing in comparison to PPT, so we can move away from the buggy, expensive-license costing, previously monopoly abusing MS Office.