Inspiring

Answered

Gradients on Images Not Exporting to PDF Corrcetly

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
October 30, 2022
6 replies
13280 views

Hello,

I am trying to fulfill my dream of becoming a children's bilingual book author. I illustrated my pages in AI, exported them as PDFs, and everything looks great when I combine the PDFs into a new file with Adobe Acrobat.

However, when I upload the PDF/X file to Kindle Direct Publishing, my illustrations containing gradients are messed up. Some parts of the illustration are missing color, some have blocks of colors rather than a gradient transition, and some are void of color altogether. I don't know what else to do.

I've done the following:
-Raster at 300ppi
-CMYK color
-Flattened the AI file
-Made sure no images were needing embedding

Please help. I am so close to finishing my book.

Correct answer Eugene Tyson

These could be Freeform gradients, they result in non native art in a pdf.

Rasterizing the gradient (Object > Rasterize) can solve it.

Or as I was saying earlier to use the transparency flatener

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

It looks like much of this has been suggested before, but I'd advance it all to keeping it really simple: export/save the images as JPEG or PNG, in RGB even if CMYK is an option, and with no layers, alpha channels, etc.

Just Plain Pictures. Not AI that has to be interpreted through ID to PDF to KDP. The only place this might cause problems is with the words; if the text is too jagged/granular, remove it from the illustrations and lay it in as actual text over the Just Plain Picture images.

M

MorganKadricAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you all so much for your help! I rasterized the object itself, and then flattened the transparency of the whole artboard. This solved my problem.

Random question, but how did I accidentally create this type of gradient? What is non-native art? Asking so that I don't do it again in the future. It seemed to cause me all kinds of problems.

I created the image by using Adobe Capture to turn my drawing into a vector, and then created the gradient with colors I grabbed from an actual image online using the eyedropper tool.

@Eugene Tyson @Ton Frederiks

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

A linear or radial gradient should not give problems. The more recently introduced free form gradients are not supported in some non Adobe PDF viewers.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/gradients.html

Derek Cross

Community Expert

Presumably this is. FXL ePub, not a Reflowable ePub?

Your images should be in RGB color mode (which will make the illustrations appear r much brighter than CMYK) and the resolution is irrelevant.

I suggest you export your book directly from InDesign to ePub, rather than via PDF.

I suggest you take one of the excellent online video tutorials on LinkedIn Learning - you can get 30-days free access.

Also, with many thousands of self published childrens books on the market now, consider how you will promote your title, otherwise it may disappear.

M

MorganKadricAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks Derek!

Don't worry, I have an actual Bachelor's degree in Marketing... my marketing skills are far superior to my Adobe skills 🙂

Derek Cross

Community Expert

Do you have much experience in promoting books?

M

MorganKadricAuthor

Inspiring

Update: still having issues. It looks great in Overprint Preview, and also looks good when I export it as a PDF. However, when I get it back from amazon's PDF preview, now chunks of the image are missing. Here is the AI file, and the PDF after I rasterized in AI. I've also attached the screenshot with the top of the leaf color missing. The AI file and exported PDF look great.. I also was sure to flatten in AI before exporting to PDF. @Mylenium @Eugene Tyson @Monika Gause

00lettuce.pdf

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Hello

I can see the issue - the Gradient has a 'transparency'

Try make a copy of your file and try flattening your image in Illustrator first

https://illustratorhow.com/how-to-flatten-image/

If this works you know the issue.

Honestly my recommendation for your whole book should be to do the Flatenning in Acrobat.

You can find the Flattener Preview here

Make sure all pages in document is selected (bottom right of image)

Let us know if this fixes your issue.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

How do you properly create gradients? What do you mean by them not being compliant?

I tried flattening the image but it didn't work.

These could be Freeform gradients, they result in non native art in a pdf.

Rasterizing the gradient (Object > Rasterize) can solve it.

Mylenium

Legend

I'm with monika here. I don't get the impression that you actually flatteened/ rasterized the layer inside AI, but are solely relying on the flattening of the PDF engine, which with stuff such as complex gradients simply is unreliable. This has always been an issue even before freeform gradients, so you may want to revisit and double-check your procedures.

Mylenium

Legend

Screenshots of the issues could certainly help to figure out what may be causing this. On a hunch I'd say they want their documents in RGB rather than CMYK, so that would be the first thing to try.

Mylenium

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

I agree with @Mylenium I was about to say the exact same thing.

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