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salochin48
Known Participant
September 10, 2009
Answered

Background disappears when saving to PDF

  • September 10, 2009
  • 8 replies
  • 49073 views

Mac OS 10.4.11 Acrobat Pro CS4 - Saving an A4 file from Illustrator (or InDesign) with a complete colour background to PDF leaves out the background - see attachment. Even if I remove all the elements in the file and save it still leaves out the background. I have tried several resolution settings in the PDF dialog window, used spot plus CMYK colours and flattened before saving to PDF. Never had this problem with previous version of Illustrator/Acrobat, I have also posted this in the Acrobat Forum as I am unsure which program is the offender.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer TommyTwoBrains

    And now you've convinced me.


    This is the solution:

    Acrobat > Preferences > General > Accessibility...

    ...at the top: "Replace Document Colors" toggle off...

    Worked for me anyway - the symptoms are the same.

    I inadvertantly set it this way when trying to find a method by which I could change the background colour from the default grey; then, for one reason or another, forgotten what I'd done.

    Hope this helps other people as daft as me.

    8 replies

    New Participant
    April 12, 2023

    sir mu backgrounf vamish after saving ai file in illustator plz help me i have 2017 cc version of adobe illustator

     

    Monika Gause
    Braniac
    April 13, 2023
    quote

    sir mu backgrounf vamish after saving ai file in illustator plz help me i have 2017 cc version of adobe illustator

     


    By @Awais29378880h8tb

    Please create a new thread in this forum.

    And answer the following questions:

    - what kind of background is it? A picture you placed? SOmething in Illustrator?

    - when does it vanish? directly after saving? Or when you re-open the file?

    - oes it vanish in Illustrator or in some other application?

    New Participant
    December 16, 2021

    I had the same issue. Was to do with accessability in preferences.

    New Participant
    June 25, 2020

    Thanks for your help on this is was driving me up the wall. My file would open online correctly but would not open on my version with the backgrounds.  You are a life saver.

    Jacob Bugge
    Inspiring
    September 11, 2009

    salochin,

    Have you considered reinstalling Acrobat?

    Inspiring
    September 11, 2009

    here does not seem to be anything wrong and I have yet to see a image

    of this file as it is displayed on his screen with the missing

    background.

    and nor do I recall this being a problem before the update and I

    cannot believe that there is no one here or anywhere ese hat has never

    encountered this problem if it actually was an

    issue.

    he OP has to show us the problem in order for this to be believable!

    Inspiring
    September 10, 2009

    File: Open the native AI with Acrobat, tell me what you see.

    Inspiring
    September 10, 2009

    A few other things to try:

    When you open the AI in Acrobat, open the Layers panel on the side. Are any hidden?

    If the background is a spot color - in Acrobat, Advanced: Print Production: Output Preview: Does the spot color appear as white in the color list?

    Back to AI. Double click on the spot color swatch. type in "PANTONE 327 C", hit enter. Double click swatch again, pull down to "Book Color" in Color Mode. Save as AI, enable PDF compatibility, then open the AI again in Acrobat.

    Inspiring
    September 11, 2009

    Larry - played around in Advanced>Print Production>Output Preview with no success.

    Printer_Rick - opened AI saved with a preview with Acrobat (in AI I do not normally save with preview so it shows just text telling me so) and got the same no show background.

    No info shown in Acrobat layers so assume must be hidden.

    See attachment 4 for Advanced>Print Production>Output Preview to see the P327 spot colour clearly shown, I thought this may be just for the horizontal stripes rather than the background so removed stripes in AI and saved to PDF again and it still showed the spot colour as being there.

    Changed the swatch to Book in AI and assume you mean by 'enable PDF compatibility' to save as a PDF which I did with no change to missing background.


    Interestingly if you look at my attachment 5 of a saved PDF of the front cover of this brochure visual you will see that the green P327 background is shown. The only difference is the fact that this background does not cover 100% of the document page.


    salochin48 wrote:

    No info shown in Acrobat layers so assume must be hidden.

    Native AI with PDF compatibility always displays layers in Acrobat. On the left side of window in Acrobat, control or right click and go to Layers icon. It looks like two pieces of paper stacked.

    I fall else fails, maybe you need to save a copy and expand the artwork. I'm not sure what's causing your problem.

    PrepressPro1
    Braniac
    September 10, 2009

    You may need to make the bleed area of the Artboard bigger. What is it currently set to. Make the bleed larger then the object which is bleeding. This is under File>Document Settings>Bleed and View Options. I have had this happen with a couple of files with background images and I just increased the bleed.

    salochin48
    Known Participant
    September 10, 2009

    Jacob - the green background is already an A4 rectangle (210x297mm) the same size as the document.

    Luke - The background layer has the print box ticked to allow it to print (see atttachment) and the spot colour is PANTONE 327CVC, shortening the name did not have any effect.

    PrepressPro1 - the artboard (document) is set at A4 (210x297mm) with no extra bleed as the background has no bleed. However I then put a bleed of 8mm in the 'Document Setup' even though the document has no (green) background bleed - it is still missing the background in the subsequent saved PDF.

    Bit of a bugger.

    Luke Jennings
    Inspiring
    September 10, 2009

    Is overprint preview turned on in Acrobat?

    Luke Jennings
    Inspiring
    September 10, 2009

    Is the background on a layer that has been set to not print?

    Is the background in a spot color with a long name?

    Jacob Bugge
    Inspiring
    September 10, 2009

    salochin,

    What if you just create a rectangle with a fill in the back and use that as background?