Can't export halftones to pdf without losing color.

[default1mg2ofe9aj1o]

I just created a file and used pixelate > Color Halftones to make a halftone gradient. First time I've tried that. It essentially created a series of black dots on a white field that get progressively smaller as they go. Essentially making it look like I have a white circle in the middle of a black page taht slowly gets lighter as your eye goes toward the center due to the diminishing size of the dots. Neat effect.

However, when I edited the gradient to make the effect irregular, Illustrator began to add a blue color to the dots. I was working in a black, grey, white pallate so that didn't work. To fix this I looked up an answer that said to select that layer and make it grayscale, which I did. It elminated the blue and I thought I was set.

BUT, while it looks good on screen, when I export it, the dots that are normally black are a washed out gray color instead. There is also a very slight whiteish gray line around where the original circle would be, but only if I'm zoomed out to a smaller magnification, when I zoom in that goes away. While I want to fix both things, the biggest thing is I would like to be able to export this file to pdf without the color loss. It does the same thing when I export to jpeg. Any ideas on how to set the export up so that it will retain the black and white of the effect?

[Ton Frederiks]

Without seeing anything it is just guessing, but can you try to use the Effect > Rasterize to create the grayscale?

Adjust the resolution (this will influence the halftone effect), anti-aliasing and background.

[default1mg2ofe9aj1o]

Here are the images I am working with. The screenshot shows how it looks in Illustrator. The jpg show how it looks when I export to jpg or pdf. You can see the effect goes from black to black in one image and gray to black in another. If I rasterize the layer, it selects all the space withing the bounding box and rasterizes it as white so the image looks like it's on a white field, which I don't want.

Hopefully this helps. I just can't figure out how to export it so that the colors remain consistent.

[default1mg2ofe9aj1o]

Very oddly, when I open the preview here, the jpg looks normal! I don't get it!

[Monika Gause]

Which app are you using to view your PDF? Acrobat?

[default1mg2ofe9aj1o]

I've used both Preview and Acrobat and both ways it show up like this....where the dark of the dots is slightly ligher than the black around it.

[Ton Frederiks]

CMYK jpegs are not very well suported by different viewers, try using an RGB version.

[default1mg2ofe9aj1o]

I will try that, but this is eventually going to be printed out and I've heard I need to deliver CMYK files for that so I'm worried if I do they won't translate to what I intended.

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you share an Illustrator file of the black background and the halftoned object?

To attach it to a post here, save as PDF or rename the .ai to .pdf

[Bobby Henderson]

Another idea: download a trial of Astute Graphics' plugins and use their Phantasm plugin to generate a vector-based halftone effect. Then a CMYK color, even a "rich black" CMYK mix, could be applied to the halftone dots without having to mess with non-standard JPEG images.

https://astutegraphics.com/plugins/phantasm