HELP! Stroke icons from illustrator look weird and not sharp when placed in indesign and pdf

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
June 29, 2023
2 replies
1220 views

I made some line icons in illustrator. I looked up how to make them pixel perfect and followed the instructions. Now when I import the .ai icons in my PDF brochure and PDF (for web), the strokes look odd, depending on how big the icon is placed. I have 100% / 60% and 20% icon sizes for examples. Some lines look good, other lines in the same icon look thicker. It doesn't matter if I export as .ai, .eps, .png or .svg.

When I place icons I bought from a stocksite, also stroke icons, they look pretty perfect sharp. So I thought, I use that file in Illustrator and make my icon next to the existing ones with the same color and same stroke size.... Still the same. I'm going pretty mad over this. What can I do to make perfect stroke icons that are crisp sharp whatever size??? HELP

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Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Is in InDesign your View > Display Performance set to High Quality Display?

Can you share such an Illustrator icon?

M

Mac1972Author

Inspiring

No it wasnt indeed, turned it on now.. but that shouldnt matter for the pdf output would it? My concern is mostly for web output PDF for the client. I allready made a special web pdf export settings with a little bit higher quality that lowest file. And normally I would have no. problem at all with output files with stock in them. It's just this set of self made icons that looks a bit weird for me.

M

Mac1972Author

Inspiring

Just curious on the best way to make icons in illustrator, wich dimensions artoboard, line width, strokes or convert lines into shapes... etc etc etc..

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

It sounds like your icons are somehow being saved as raster art (png or jpeg) rather than vector (ai or pdf). If that is the case then they will pixelate as they are enlarged. When you open your icons in the Outline mode (View>Outline) do you see the icon you've created in outline or just a blank box? If you are seeing a blank box then your icons have somehow become raster. Please upload some screen shots showing the problem. That will make it easier to diagnose the problem.

M

Mac1972Author

Inspiring

No they are really line (stroke) vectors. I solved the problem for now by converting them to shapes. But it must work with stroke icons as well. As you can see in the screenshot the purple small icons (scaled down in indesign) have weird lines thick and thin. While the black temple icon is a stroke icon from stock and looks really even and sharp.

Mike_Gondek10189183

Community Expert

Are you importing .ai with pdf compatible into InDesign, or pasting clipboard, or other?

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