Illustrator exported Pdf completely different from the artwork

[Satyam33106155oc05]

Hi, I made a banner design in Illustrator to make sure it doesn't pixelate when printed/projected on a large scale. I used a lot of effects in the design and used various blending modes as well at some places. The design looks fine and is a vector but as soon as I export it into a pdf, it looks absolutely different.

I tried looking for answers as to why is this happening online. Read somewhere it won't happen if I rasterize my work and then export it. ( which worked by the way), but then it defeats the whole purpose of that design to be a vector and avoid pixelation when used on a large scale. 

I have attached some screenshots to have a look at.

Please help me fix this.

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from using the community">

[Ton Frederiks]

What do you use to view the PDF? Does it look different in Acrobat?

[Satyam33106155oc05]

It does, I don't know. Even in acrobat, its messing up the fx and stuff

;-;

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you tell us a little more about you PDF settings?

[Satyam33106155oc05]

I tried exporting in High quality preset, Illustrator default preset, smallest size and the 2008 one as well, none of them worked. I think the issue here happening is, I have my file made in cmyk but the pdf are being exported in rgb. Thats just my guess about the problem i dont know

[Ton Frederiks]

As Monika already noticed, changing the color space may cause the difference in your files. Some blend modes behave different in RGB and CMYK. Keeping the color mode the same or rasterizing will avoid these problems.

[Bobby Henderson]

Illustrator's default PDF export settings should not change the color space of the document unless some settings have been changed (such as the ones in the Output section of the PDF export dialog box). A change from CMYK to RGB will most definitely make transparency effects and blending modes go wonky.

What application is pictured in your second screen shot? It doesn't look like an Acrobat UI that I'm used to seeing.

[Bobby Henderson]

I can't tell for sure what I'm looking at in the two screenshots.

Generally speaking, two very important safeguards need to be followed when using a lot of the native effects and blending modes in Adobe Illustrator. First, the color model has to stay consistent throughout. If artwork starts out in RGB mode and is converted to CMYK along the way many of the blending appearances will change unpredictably. Second, the printer and/or large format RIP application used to print the banner must have an Adobe certified PDF print engine. The leading ones such as Onyx, Caldera and RasterLink Pro do. But there are others that don't.

If you happen to be using any spot colors (such as Pantone) in gradients or transparency effects that will lead to color shifts and other unpredictable results. Any gradients, glows, etc should be made using colors from the document's color space, be it CMYK or RGB.

[Satyam33106155oc05]

I did not change colour model while making this, and i don't use pantone either. No idea why is this happening... if i rasterize the whole thing and then export, it works, but normally exporting pdf doesn't 

[Monika Gause]

If those are gradients interacting with each other in transparency, then it will be rasterized anyway when transparency gets flattened. And changing the color space when exporting will cause this.